Jaune's Fall from Grace
by The95will
Summary: Jaune Arc always followed the rules, he kept it that way until he was booted from Beacon. Coming home a failure isn't something to be proud of. Before leaving, a letter appeared on the doorstep. It's a shot to return but involves robbing banks and fight crime syndicates. He will have help, and the choice is simple. He crafts the mask for the task. This will be his Payday. RWBY
1. Chapter 1, The Heist

**Sup people, I'm a fan of the web series RWBY and I thought of Payday when I saw the symbols for the characters. Also I like to offer song ideas with my stories. There are two songs for this which are "**Search and Destroy**" from the Operation Darkness soundtrack and "**Anti-You**" by Blue Stahli.**

**First song link:** watch?v=2pvWUcY-64I&amp;list=PLYWSsSED4tGWH8SfXW38vg_JMvY8HFi_Y&amp;index=2

**Second song link:** watch?v=sF3aZyNDF1Q

**Thank you and I hope you enjoy**

The clouds in the sky concealed the sun from the street below. Vale has been a country known for its cities and those who live in its borders. In the country as well was a bank of the Schnee Corporation. It was created to avoid fees from other banks and keep their revenue.

A woman in a yellow suit entered the bank. She looked around inside, the tellers masking their frustration, the people bored in line, and the security guard slacking on his job. The woman wanted to smile to this sad excuse. She walked to the closest couch, set her purse down, and began to read a newspaper.

Behind the desk, the teller was seeing a young man with a green silk suit and asked to see a manager for a business venture. On his right shoulder was a black bag. The lady at the desk was completely at a loss of words as she stuttered in his presence before her.

"Um right this way sir."

"Please don't call me sir. I'm younger than you." The man gave a gentle pat on her back.

The yellow suit woman looked on ahead and saw the lady completely enthralled. _Sucker_, the yellow suit woman thought. Before long the young man was in the back with a manager.

"Can I help you?" The manager asked with his cheap wrinkled suit.

"Thank you, I would like to say I have an idea to propose on a twenty thousand lien investment on dust combat gear." The young man leaned back in the manager's spare chair in front of the expensive desk.

"Isn't that something more for the military?"

"No, they take it give me scraps while the rest of the world will counter engineer it after a year."

"I'm not sure about that." The manager scratched his chin.

"Well, can I ask you to do something else?" The young man stood up and walked behind the manager.

"That being?" The manager asked while a M1911A1 pistol was digging into his back.

"Call all employees to the break room?" The young man spoke with no emotion.

"I uh can't do that." The manager's mind went everywhere.

"Well you better before the shooting starts. Don't you want to save their lives?" The manager gasped and nodded. The two walked side by side as the manager called the intercom for an emergency meeting.

"Hey Tammy, it's time to see the boss." One employee passed the tellers. One by one all employees were brought to the back.

Above the building was another woman with a heavy bag pulling out heavy machinery. She was wearing a pink suit and laughed at pulling away the control panels. Tapping in the wires sparked as the woman ignored the pain and continued because she was on the clock. Eventually all the lights went out inside the building. Everyone looked around.

Customers in line murmured to themselves. By now all the employees have gathered. The man with the green suit wore a black mask with a white flowers and pink outline. The break room was the size of large kitchen with one table in the center with way too much room for more tables to be added. The manager stood at the opposite side of the room as one employee took out his lunch and began to eat his sandwich. The young man stood at the window which was behind the manager. The man with the green suit walked the window and placed strange blocks that beamed read lights. The green suit walked to the closest air vent and jumped to place another block beside it. He opened his bag and showed his gun.

One of the male employees noticed the weapon and screamed. It could have almost broken the sound barrier. The customers heard the cry as well as many tried to find the source. There were only seven of them. Annoyed the man fired a round at the ground.

The customers ducked down as one was still standing being engulfed in terror to move. Everyone prepared to leave the bank as a woman in a pink suit stood at the entrance, with a grenade launcher along with two bags at her back, one full one empty. She lifted her Vector submachine gun at the crowd.

"Get down on the ground." The woman in the pink suit ordered, her face covered in a blue mask with a hammer and lightning on the bridge of the nose.

"You better do what she says." There was another woman with a pistol _clicked_. She was covered in a mask as well. She was in a gold mask with red spear through pointing to the top left.

"What's going on?" The manager stammered.

"What else? This is a robbery." The man used his free hand and tapped his collar. "All clear, you can enter." The green suit man looked over the group of people. "That bag on the table is full of explosives, those lights are trip wires, touch the blocks, and they will trigger the bomb. When I leave this room there will be a bomb on the door, any of you try to leave the bomb will go off." The green suit tossed something on the ceiling and it was a rotating block with a camera.

"That will monitor you, do not test me." All the employees did as they were told and sat alongside the edges of the room and laid down. The green suit left walked outside and there were loud thumps on the door.

"Ready, come on in." The green suit walked to the entrance, along the way he passed an open door with three unconscious security guards laid on top each other with zip ties on their wrists and ankles. That was the woman in the gold suit's work.

"You took care of them as the power went out?" The green suit asked.

"Yep, the woman kneeled down and opened the full bag. She reeled out a CM901 assault rifle and gently tossed it to the woman in gold. The pink suit passed out body armor to each of them. The bag was still heavy and made her way to the vault.

"Can you get the door for me please?" A voice asked over the comms.

The pink suit walked to the backdoor and released the locks. In came a heavily armored suit with a M60 LMG. His black mask had two golden crescent moons in the center. "Let's go to work."

The pink suit nodded and jogged to the vault, it was reinforced steel. She chuckled at the sight of it. Removing the rest of the back was a thermal drill that needed to be placed together. She did was give another bag by the large armored suit with a black top with navy blue pants.

"How long?" The armored suit inquired.

"Eight minutes, tops." The suit began to piece the drill together.

"You got six." The armored one walked to the entrance and took control of watching the civilians.

Three minutes passed as nothing happened; the green and gold suits patrolled the bank. The emergency lights lit up as with no alarm.

"What's going on?" The armored suit pressed his ear.

"The vault has an automatic separate system. When the door is being tampered with it set security off automatically." The pink suit shouted back.

**Play the first song**

_This it was going too well anyways._ The armored suit thought. "Alright just open the door and be ready to move."

"Roger that." The pink suit responded

The armored suit waved his arm at the green suit. The green suit looked back at the civilians. "On your feet, come on." Everyone did as they were told and brought into the break room with the employees. None of them said a word.

"They're in the room, how much time do we have?"

"Thirty seconds before any police show up." The green and gold suits took cover behind the teller stations, and the armored one set his back to the wall of a pillar in the entrance.

"I'm almost through." The comms updated.

By then the sirens are in ear shot, the flashing lights gleamed off the buildings. Two heavy black trucks split open as two dozen combat droids came online. Each with a standard assault rifle or sub machine gun. For every squad of droids would be one human captain. They took cover behind the droid trucks.

The armored suit broke the glasses and aimed outside. The street was empty as the droids took formation.

"I'm through, loading the bags now." The pink suit updated.

The M60 peaked out of the window. The armored suit took a deep breath. The birds no longer chirped when the cracks of gunshots broke the air. He aimed at a squad of three and each fell apart with fragments going everywhere and sparks of the exposed insides. Wires flickered as the police returned fire.

The green and gold suits returned the favor as they fired as well. Bullets split the air past the armored suit, with that happening he kept firing. The sparks ignited the air and bullet casings rained. The first wave of droids was disposed of.

Thwhiping in the air suggested there would be a mini helicopter giving a bird's eye view of the heist.

The green suit at the skylight. He fired several rounds at the helicopter but made sure to miss. He just doesn't want them to be too close. The heli dipped in flight and backed off.

"The bags are ready, let's move." The pink suit appeared and began to fire with her UMP at the street; all the cops took cover with a new truck of droids arriving. The gold suit broke from cover. The green suit looked about as two droids dropped from the ceiling behind the armored suit. Green fired several rounds into the glass of the teller stations and jumped through the weakened glass.

The two droids gained their posture and one aimed directly at the armored suit. The green suit used his right fist to knock the forearm of the droid to the ceiling. It fired and it was it was elbowed in the helmet by green. It laid flat on its back as it lost its grip on the gun. The second droid used the stock of its gun and punched the green suits mask. Ignoring the pain the green suit ducked in to have the droid lean in as well. The green suit took this opportunity to punch the droid directly in the center of the body and it was lifted in the air by the force. The green suit did a right uppercut then left uppercut and when his right hand was low he grabbed his pistol. Aiming directly up the suit fired a round into the helmet of the droid. He jumped up as well and twisted his whole body then reversed kicked the droid out of the windows.

"Alright on your go." The gold shouted as she took aim from the teller station.

The green suit nodded and he sprinted to the value. The first droid did a complete pushup and the pink suit ran to it and with a fierce amount of force the helmet was punted off. Then she slid to the pillar of the armored suit.

"How's it going?"

"It's not the time to be talking." The armored one place his back to the wall and began to reload his M60 for the second time.

"All of this will afford me a lot of pancakes so that is the best part about all this." The armored looked at her. She rested her left arm on the pillar. A droid stood at the entrance so the pink suit quick drew her M92F and shot in the eye. "Totally worth it."

"I've got my bag, now let's move!" The green ducked down and took cover behind the desks.

"Now it's my time to appear on the stage." The pink said while she ran outside, her aura was burning brightly as the gold suit watch her from a window. Using her polarity ability she used it to have the bullets miss her.

Pink rolled forward and her right arm was straight with her pistol and grenade launcher in her left arm in a 90 degree angle. She fired the pistol three times to take one droid down and fired the grenade launcher to take out a squad. She jumped forward to the center of the street as a squad of droids swarmed her. She threw the grenade launcher in the air for a moment to reload her pistol and when the launcher came back down the pink suit grabbed it on the stock. She brought it close to her right shoulder and swung it to her left as it changed into a hammer knocking the squad of four droids break in the air.

She looked around to get a view of their attackers. Everything planned to arrive did. A droid on top of a truck tossed a grenade at her. "Batter up!" She laughed with her hammer at her side. Focusing her vision she hit the grenade and it was sent back to the droid. The grenade exploded in front of the droid. "And it's a home run!" The pink suit sprinted back to the entrance using her grenade launcher to fire thermal smoke in all directions.

"We got more droids heading this way."

"Alright, time to bug out." The armored stood up. He jogged to the vault as the gold suit tossed him a bag of money.

"We better leave now, that helicopter will make this impossible." The gold suit took cover beside the door. She took a peak outside as there was nothing.

"Clear," the green and pink suits made it out. The armored suit was halfway there as the ceiling blew open with a bulldozer class droid emerged from the dust. "Just get going I'll catch up." The armor shouted.

"But Jaune."

"NOW!" The droid brought its arm down like a sledgehammer as the armored suit raised his right forearm as the padding transformed into a shield. He kneeled down in time as the force was absorbed by the shield.

Dropping the LMG the armored suit pulled out his sword out of the shield. In that moment Jaune shoved the bulldozer back. "I'm ready."

The bulldozer circled its right arm to Jaune's left arm which held the shield. Pointing his sword to the ground he reeled in front of his stomach and it in a crescent motion her brought the sword up. It severed the fist of the bulldozer, sparks were flying. The bulldozer lifted the second arm as it was a built in cannon. Jaune didn't waste any time as he slammed the sword into the barrel and charged the bulldozer to the vault and pulled out his sword with it toppled backwards. In the vault was nothing but plastic explosives surrounding it. Jaunt ducked from the opening as the tremor finished off the bulldozer.

Jaune had to hurry because his mask was cracked and that isn't a good sign. With his sword sheathed his sword and picked up his M60 and typed in an emergency code. The gun was morphing into a green gel and it self-destructed. He sprinted out of the door with a bag on his back.

_I really hope Pyrrha and the others are alright_. Jaune thought when he walked outside in the back. The crew reacted quickly enough and the police didn't seal the back exit off.

**Play the second song here**

Jaune continued to sprint as he made to the end of the alley. He peaked out to see Ren and Nora gridlocked with a bulldozer as Pyrrha fought droids. Jaune sprinted forward

Pyrrha's CM901 shifted into a spear while she wiffed the air with it. The closest droid was impaled and Pyrrha lifted it up in the air with no difficulty and tossed it at two more droids. Unhooking her pack on her side was two grenades and she tossed them far ahead using her polarity to extract the pins. By the time they arrived at the next squad, the droids were all blown up. An officer appeared in smoke.

A detective by the looks at him and in his left arm was a morning star and a bulky right boot.

"Are you okay?" Jaune appeared behind Pyrrha.

"Yeah, we're almost there."

Behind them was an explosion and Ren and Nora walked away from the wrecked bulldozer. "Great job, take care of the droids and clear a path."

"Gotcha'." Nora responded over the comms.

The detective jogged to them as Jaune readied his sword and Pyrrha walked to droids and pulled her spear out. The two regrouped then the detective was on top of them. He wore a completely grey suit with a fedora hat. He gave it a tip and started to spin the spike ball around as it lunged forward at them. They saw it their attacker so two side jumped in opposite sides and the detective choose to go after Jaune first. The brought a black bulky boot down as it knocked all the air out of Jaune's lungs.

Coughing there was a kick on his left hip as Pyrrha came in for the assist. She did an array stabs with her spear. The detective kept back stepping and eventually he brought his Morningstar up and spun it rapidly at the end until it was wrapped around Pyrrha's spear. He gave a slight smile and pulled Pyrrha close then punched the center of her mask and gave a foot attack as Pyrrha dodged his boot. The pulled his spear back this time and jumped and double foot kicked him and landed on her back. The spear became untangled Jaune lifted her onto her feet.

The detective double jumped up back onto his feet and made a click with his Morningstar as the chain extended further. In it he kicked it then tugged the chain for the spiked ball to halt and then he started to swing it round and round. So in the moment Jaune walked in front of Pyrrha and he dashed forward as she tossed her spear again. The detective kicked the ball and spun around having the chain wrap around his body and spun in the opposite direction for the ball to smash into Jaune's shield. He jumped up for a downward slash for the sword. The detective kicked the chain back up and split it apart to the sword to be blocked. Pyrrha came in from the sky again and before she could strike the detective he stomped the ground having him jump up to avoid the attack. Pyrrha jumped twirled in the air and Jaune set both of his fists on his shield and amplified by his aura he sent her into the air. She leaned forward and her polarity sped her circling and when she caught up to the detective he was dumbfounded. Pyrrha smiled and she did a durable downward kick. The detective was sent to the ground and dust from the area puffed. When it cleared the detective was knocked out, the fedora was wrinkled and landed on top of his face.

Still spinning Jaune used his arms to try to catch her and she landed perfectly. Jaune's mask began to split open. He quickly set her down and looked behind her. The moons were cracking and so Jaune had to hold his mask together with his right hand.

"Hey guys, we're ready."

"Copy." Pyrrha smiled under her mask. The two sprinted to the next alley to see Ren reloading his weapons.

"One more group of droids, I'm tired and that means the same thing for my aura." Ren rubbed the front of his mask.

Pyrrha's spear shifted back into her assault rifle and she took cover at the corner. Nora passed her Vector to Jaune. Both of them took the time to pick off the closest droids.

Ren got back to his feet and sighed.

"Don't worry I got it Ren." Nora peaked from her cover and shot two shots of thermal smoke and they sprinted to their getaway of a blue van with a robotic driver. All four of them loaded into their van and closed the door, after thirty seconds the van broke from the smoke and drove onto the highway. After a long fifteen minute chase the van was run off the road and a squad of humans surrounded the vehicle. In heavy armor the door was popped open. There was nothing inside but the driver bot.

In the sewers

"Great work everyone." Jaune exhaled with a heavy burden being uplifted. By now his mask was broken fully so he was the only one without his.

"No worries (gasped) we didn't even (gasped) break a sweat." Ren gave a thumbs up as he leaned on a wall. He lifted his mask and took a deep breath.

"Great work on disabling the security system and jamming communications." Pyrrha complemented Nora.

"It was nothing, it is in the under the rocks on the roof, it will go dark in several minutes. Also I've adjusted the security to be wiped as well."

Ren removed his mask with had him with more of a Caucasian appearance and tapped his collar to return to his real appearance. The crew continued walking and they made it to the docks as there was a two boat and two cars ready for them. By now night has fallen over Vale. Each of them removed their gear and placed it into their bags. Jaune walked in front of the crew.

"Excellent work, everyone. For now, we go dark." Each of them said their goodbyes. Ren took a car and Nora a boat.

"I'm Pop Eye the sailor gal." Nora shouted before she started the engine.

Jaune walked to his car and pressed the button for the doors to unlock. "Hey Jaune." Pyrrha called out to him with her scarlet hair freed from the black cover.

"What is it?" Jaune turned around.

"I'm sorry for what's happened. It was stupid for Beacon to have kicked you out on what Cardin did." Pyrrha stood there with her eyes giving a hint of sadness.

"All of you have a good chance to do something with your lives. I'm just getting on by just fine." Jaune stood straight and he did a hero's pose. Standing with pose, it was obvious that he didn't have the confidence to back it up.

"Well we did rob the bank of Roman Torchwick. That'll make him pissed." Pyrrha looked at the ground. "I'll try to clear your name and have you back in Beacon before the end of the first semester."

"I'm very grateful. You better get going." Jaune didn't want to keep her; there is an army of cops looking for them. Pyrrha said her goodbyes and took a boat to leave the city and reenter with a car of her own.

Jaune opened the car and sat down. "Are you here?" He asked looking into the rear view mirror.

"Of course, I see you're alive." A woman with black dress appeared. This was a very dangerous woman and she sat in the back on the opposite side of him. In the distance were two distinct individuals, a young man in grey hair and a woman with dark skin with tortoise hair.

"The bag is here and you can take it. May I please have my payment?" Jaune took out his gear and placed it in the passenger side of the car. The woman nodded outside while the other two probably her enforcers, walked to the car. The guy grabbed the bag and when "_hmm._" The guy gave a look of _really?_ No one really took the time to take Jaune seriously.

When the guy left an envelope tapped his left shoulder. "As promised." The woman smiled that made Jaune's spine tingle in her speech. He opened it with a testimony of Cardin admitting that he lied and he was expelled as well. This will allow Jaune to return to Beacon.

"Thank you very much, Miss Cinder Fall." Jaune started the car. The woman didn't leave the car, she gave a gentle smirk. "Um, do you need something?"

"Nothing in particular, please drive me to the New Vale hotel please." Cinder relaxed her back and stared outside.

"Sure." Jaune proceed to pull out and drove the speed limit to her destination. _I really hope this isn't some 'tying loose ends' thing._ Jaune thought.

Cinder looked outside the window. "Well Mr. Arc, I have a proposition for you."

**Wow that was fun. I hope you've enjoyed this venture. I will come back to this if people like this story. I thought it would be cool to make a "out of their element" story hence PayDay. The teams are skilled at killing Grimm and I wanted to add crime master to that list for Jaune. Please tell me what you think and please give a review.**

**Edit: The story has become so much since this chapter, there is more to love, and Jaune will have a crew to back him up on the future, the cover image gives it away.**

**The picture is from an established artist from Deviantart. Created by oobidoobi, as it was a request by a reader and by extent me. I love the image so so much. Please check this artist out when you have time, all the art is just fantastic.**


	2. Chapter 2, Return to Beacon

**Welcome back, I've given it an all of thought and decided to return to this story. It is a nice idea for me to work with and I hope you'll enjoy the ride. Whenever someone reviews to my story I will respond to the previous chapter on the bottom. Now let's get back to the crew.**

Morning came and the as the shattered moon faded into the blue sky. Nothing was better than this, Jaune took a deep breath. He stood before the entrance of the public airship was preparing for liftoff.

_Now if I could only make one step_, Jaune pondered in his mind. Seeing that this was the final obstacle he took the first step and walked to the center. He stood there waiting for anything to happen… and nothing did. Adjusting his shoulder with a bag holding his belongings. Jaune looked outside the window and it was clearly off the ground breezing past the clouds.

Jaune stood a bit taller and took another deep breath. This is a new beginning and grand one with a Jaune that isn't going to back down one and that will- "Hey there vomit boy." Jaune's world shattered as Yang and Blake were on the airship as well.

Judging from their uniforms, they were waiting for him. "Good morning girls." Jaune bowed like a performer.

"It's been awhile since I've seen you so enthusiastic." Black yawned and fanned her mouth. Jaune lowered his bag and placed it against his leg.

"I don't know why, but I just feel… better." Jaune looked over their shoulders and didn't see anyone else. This was the early bird time to travel so not many passengers were onboard. "Where is the rest of your team?"

"Back at Beacon, they have morning classes and we don't. Also Miss Catnap here apparently has a difficult time walking up in the mornings. Ever one had to go to class and honestly I'm a bit surprised you didn't tell your team." Yang made a fist and decked Jaune in the arm.

"Ow, that hurts." Jaune's arm burned as he tried to rub the pain away.

"That was for also keeping a secret from us." Yang was ready to punch him again but she stopped midway as Jaune stood there unflinching to her attack.

"It wasn't something I wanted to tell the world. I have to make up the work in four weeks and I plan to do my best no matter what the cost." Jaune stood tall and didn't give any false confidence.

"Come on Yang, I had a secret that I wasn't too keen to share either." Blake placed her left hand on Yang's shoulder. Looking of her shoulder, Yang noticed Blake's bow was shifting around.

"I guess you're right but his secret is different." Yang returned to Jaune.

"I'm sorry and that is all I can say." Jaune relented then lowered his head.

Yang sighed. "I know I shouldn't be mad, you put your heart into Beacon and it would be a shame for the future to lose a wonderful Huntsman." Yang wrapped her arm around Jaune's neck and lowered his body. "But you got a long way to go, like the rest of us."

After that they caught Jaune up on what mostly happened while he was away for the month. During his time away, Jaune was in a hotel that Weiss was kind enough to provide. Jaune didn't spend any more money than he allowed her to. Jaune made sure to leave false contact information for his family. Jaune couldn't bring himself to admit what happened to his family. If he did, he expected all of his sisters telling him to just come home. He knew each of them missed their pack mule.

Jaune was excited to return but didn't know what to expect. He didn't inform his team because it would distract their day and they don't need to deal with their sorry moron of a _leader_. Jaune asked about Ruby and how she was doing. According to Blake, the first week of his absence was most difficult. Everyone couldn't really talk at lunch; Ruby couldn't eat when they were told what happened. With time, her team supported her and was equally as happy when she learned of his return.

"Well that's great to hear." Jaune said as Beacon came into view. The airship landed and as the light pierced the opening. Blake quickly tapped Jaune's shoulder having him turn around.

"I just needed to distract you." Blake turned Jaune around again and at the entrance were two poles with a banner. "Welcome back, Jaune." Below the banner were Ruby, Weiss, and the rest of Team JNPR.

Yang was the first to leave the airship. "Did you really think they wouldn't welcome you back?"

Jaune took one step as Ruby was already hugging him. "I'm so happy you're back."

"Thank you." Ruby let him go as Jaune exited the airship. Weiss was the next one to approach him, she smiled and in the flash, she slapped him.

"Yeah, I had that coming." Jaune admitted as he reeled back and was smacked with something on his chest. It was paper by the feel of it. Jaune looked at Weiss.

"It's a bill you freeloader. The debt will be dropped when you become a huntsman."

"Duly noted." Jaune gave a thumbs up as Weiss stepped aside.

"You owe me a lot of pancakes." Nora looked at a Jaune in the eye and she winked. She walked to Jaune and she stomped his right foot.

Jaune kneeled down. "Ow."

"Oh I'm sorry. Was that too much?" Nora looked around. Pyrrha walked beside her.

"Not enough I'd say but I think we all hurt him enough." Pyrrha walked to Jaune and punched him in the jut. "After me of course."

Jaune coughed and he stood tall again. "I ready for what you got Ren."

Ren walked up to Jaune and how with his right hand he set it at Jaune's face. Jaune was braced for it and Ren was emotionless. Then finally a fist was made and it a blink of an eye Ren flicked his finger on Jaune's forehead. "Now I feel better."

"Now that everyone has their fill of hurting me, can we please get to the dorm, my first class starts in thirty minutes." Everyone laughed as team RWBY told JNPR that they'll see him again for lunch.

"So how's it been?" Jaune asked as the group entered the school.

"Been okay, after you had to leave the dorms Pyrrha here took over as team leader. None of us wanted to have you be replaced so we remained as a team of three until today." Nora gave the load down. Ren remained quiet as the group walked into the halls. Many of the students watched from afar. Several disgusted looks, several angry, with others completely neutral.

"I see the school body learned about me as well." Jaune looked at the ground.

"Don't worry they don't know what to think, rumors mudded the truth so you don't have to worry too much about it." Ren jumped in.

Jaune just nodded as he returned to the dorm as the team reached the dorm. Jaune needed to change and everyone decided to go to their classes. Pyrrha stuck around until Ren and Nora weren't in sight.

"Are you worried about what happened?" Pyrrha tilted her head.

"No, I was expecting something much worse. I knew this would happen." Jaune laid out his clothing.

"Well, if you need anything, let me know." Pyrrha left the dorm. Jaune looked at the closest clock, twenty minutes left. Jaune changed his clothes as there was a knock at the door. Jaune did some old casual dance walk like in some old cartoon.

"Hello?" Jaune opened his door as it pushed complete opened by the guest. Jaune remembered those burning eyes and crimson dress.

"Good morning, Mr. Arc." Cinder entered the room walked to the center of the and absorbed her surroundings. Jaune closed the door immediately as no one seemed to be with her. Cinder seemed comfortable and she sat down on a chair in front of a desk. In her left arm was a small bag.

"What do you want?" Jaune didn't have any malice or fear in his tone, he was mostly concerned over why is Cinder here.

"My, my, this is a lovely room, others are usually so untidy but this one is quite different." Cinder hid her motive quite well, she's a skilled deceiver. Jaune looked at his bag, inside was the very mask he used for the robbery two weeks ago. Sure the mask was split in half but it was replaced with an even stronger mask. _I really don't like where this is going_.

"We try to keep it clean as much as we can. Ren and I grew up around women. He had Nora and I have my sisters." Jaune looked at the clock with the minute hand informed him that fifteen minutes left.

"Lovely." Cinder leaned back on the chair her arms drooped on the armrests. With women as Jaune was forced to learn is that some just relish speaking in body language and liking for those around them to be mind readers. Cinder is no exception, her expression was that this room is now her palace.

"I know what you require and I'm sorry. I don't want to part of your next heist or whatever." Jaune analyzed the situation. On his belt is his sword and shield. It takes two seconds to draw his equipment and three seconds for the shield to deploy. The door will take five seconds to open but jumping out the window will take only two seconds. The air was still at a dropping needle will be loud.

"I was expecting you to say that, the offer will still stand and you just need to ask me whenever you're ready." Cinder left the bag on the desk and she turned her back to Jaune for a moment as he just stood there, doing nothing.

"You really know how to keep yourself under control." Cinder looked over her shoulder.

Jaune just chuckled to himself. "Normally, I'm not but I can be when the situation calls for it." He admitted as he circled around the room and walked closer to the wall without a window.

"You can tell you're sniper on the roof of the school to move their crosshair away from my head please." Jaune bluffed.

"Well done. The next job is all here." Cinder lightly gestured to the bag and looked out the window. With her right hand she two finger waved out into the sun. _Oh man, I'm so glad I didn't move._ Cinder opened the door and with it she was ready to close it. "You'll be doing a lot of good." The door closed.

Taking the risk Jaune walked to the bag and zipped it open. Inside is an semi-thick envelope of standard paper size. Jaune was tempted to look it over but he noticed the clock and the class stars in seven minutes. With the envelope in hand, Jaune placed it inside with the rest of his textbooks. He hurried along in the halls to Professor Port's class.

_This wasn't supposed to happen. I'm back at Beacon and trouble comes literally knocking at my door. How will they take this? Will this be a simple or complicated job?_ By the time Jaune made to the class as it was starting. A majority of the students were talking among themselves.

"Welcome back Mr. Arc." The instructor spoke quietly so the class wouldn't notice. "Please take a seat, I don't like to put the rumored students on the spot." Port made an effort to lift his burly eyebrow with his right eye and winked.

"Thanks professor." Jaune said as the class moved on. The room was lucky enough to have Port ramble on about something of the older times went the technology was different. So by now it was plenty of time for him to open the envelope under the desk and slowly took out the first paper and placed it among his notes.

On top of the first page was a lightly taped sticky note. "Reveal this and we will know about it." Jaune rolled his eyes as he removed the note to read the contents. The job this time is another heist but this time it's going to happen at… _WHAT_! Jaune stood up from his seat and widened his eyes. Still trapped in the world of his mind he realized how much of a scene he's making for himself.

"Well Jaune, what do you have to say from the expanse of government with the council system."

Jaune quickly eyed the board. "It was created with the intent to be for the citizens of their prospective nations. Each of them has three chosen individuals for the councils." Jaune BSed the question.

"Um, you're not fully correct but you're onto something. You may be seated." Professor Port turned to the rest of the class and asked the class for a more in depth answer.

Jaune sank into the seat. _I can't let this happen, that will end my life and the rest of the team. What am I supposed to do_? Jaune leaned forward with his hands over his face. For the rest of the class Jaune chose to write down everything on the board to his notebook until the bell rang. It was time for lunch.

Jaune exited the classroom and to his surprised Ren was waiting for him. "Hey boss."

"Oh hey Ren." Jaune looked around and didn't see Nora anywhere. Ren read the gesture and started to walk.

"Nora isn't here. I just wanted to talk to you." Ren gave a slight follow me wave.

"Um thanks, I'm heading to the cafeteria, you heading there as well?" Jaune kept his textbook with the envelope inside close to his person.

Ren nodded to Jaune and the two walked through the halls side by side. "I know you've been feeling guilty and I that isn't good for your mental health. I wanted to let you know that I don't blame you for your entrance to Beacon." Ren kept looking on ahead. Jaune couldn't think of anything to say as Ren decided to continue.

"We've all want to be here, everyone works for their goals and this school is part of this mentality." Ren and Jaune stood outside ready to walk into the cafeteria. "You're back and that tells me you want to be here. So, Jaune are you ready to fight for your future?" Ren looked Jaune in the eyes.

With those words, Jaune uncompromisingly stood taller. "Yes, I want to be here and I'll fight for it."

"Great." Ren opened the doors to see both teams gather at the table where they usually sit at. Blake waved as the rest of the teams noticed the entrance of the guys. Jaune and Ren sat down and both noticed the lack of Ruby.

There was a slam on the table and on it was of a huge stack of papers on the table as Ruby had it labeled as the best day ever schedule. "Ladies, gentlemen, Weiss."

"Hey." Weiss snapped.

"Four score and seven years ago, I had a dream." Ruby started to shake her hands as if she stood on a podium.

"This'll be good." Yang joked as what happened next would become the most grandest of food fights in the history of food fights.

Ruby stood up from her move that practically ruined the whole cafeteria as the headmistress showed up to repair everything with her wand.

"Children please… don't play with your food." The headmistress grinded her teeth with flames in her eyes and waved her wand around. Jaune was the first to fall from the wall and landed on his chest. Wiping the food from his eyes, Jaune noticed in the distance was Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch. Miss Goodwitch seemed to be angry at the groups but seeing Ozpin's lips move it had Glynda calm down a bit.

"Aw man that was fun." Yang laughed. The rest of the food on JNPR was pulled away from their clothing thanks to Miss Goodwitch. JNPR and RWBY walked out of the cafeteria with two more following them. But they went back to the transfer dorm.

The rest of the day went well and everyone returned to their dorms. Jaune walked to the to the rooftop to get a good view of the moon. Jaune watched to move beam off the vibrant lights into the night sky as the stars danced. Pyrrha didn't seem him sneak off as her and Nora left have fun with team RWBY. Ren enjoys the room free of noise and decided to crack open a book. Little did to Jaune's knowledge was that Ren was reading Jaune's comic books.

Jaune sat down on his folded out jacket. Footsteps appeared on the concrete and a figure sat beside him. "Enjoying the view?"

"Yes I am. How about you Cinder?" Jaune kept looking at the sky.

"There's beauty in everything. You see the sky differently than I do." Cinder hand her legs angled together as she laid them in a "L" shape.

"I've thought about what you're asking me." Jaune broke from the sky and turned to Cinder. "I can't help you."

"Pity. Well I will just have to inform the local law enforcement of your recent endeavors." Cinder pulled her communication scroll and on it is a picture of Jaune with a bag entering a car. Along with the picture played audio of Jaune talking to Cinder on the drive to the New Vale Hotel. As the audio played the scroll also showed pictures of JNPR leaving the sewers.

Jaune looked down at the ground. "You made your point. But I'll help but under one condition."

Cinder raised an eyebrow. She wasn't expecting Jaune to ask for anything. "My team cannot become involved with your activities. Do that and I'll help you." Jaune returned to his feet and stretched his hand for Cinder.

"Fine, but don't get carried away with demands." Cinder accepted Jaune's hand as she was lifted from the ground. Cinder's eyes stayed the same way when she first showed herself. Confident and unwavering.

Jaune didn't like of where this may lead. "So when do we start?"

**I really like this chapter. The tone for this story is still going to action, the RWBY characters all involved in some way, and a little of me personal flair. If you're wondering about the food fight, it's a tie in to the first episode of Volume Two of the show. I'm thinking of changing the name to the story "Jaune's Payday" or should I just leave the name? Tell me what you think of the story and have an excellent day. Thank you for reading.**

**Insanity Run: **Thank you for coming and the kind words. This story came to me and I didn't want to let it pass and with this chapter, I guess I've committed myself. I'd like to be a good writer not just for me but for the readers to understand the story as well. I'm trying to improve my editing skills and I think I've improving. Just by reading the chapter, I'm going to continue the story. Thanks again and have a (Puts on shades, then **Explosion**) Have a badass day.

**You are right… NOT:** Thank you for reading.

**Animegirl 144: **Phew, (Needlessly wipes forehead.) It was grammar I messed up on. I'll keep trying to improve myself. Fight scenes are something I love to imagine and plan out. The details are for the reader as I'm worried that if I don't give enough details the fight scenes won't be as much fun. Yay, the story is somewhat interesting, and I'll do my best. No need to label yourself as a stickler for Pyrrha's name, I'll be sure to edit that when I post this chapter. I'm sorry but Jaune is caught between a hard place and a chance of being burned by Cinder. I hope you like the chapter and have a great day.


	3. Chapter 3, Armored Van Takedown

**The battles of RWBY are a staple of the series and I hope to keep that effort in my stories. Fight scenes are just so much fun. Now let's continue.**

"We start right now." Cinder stood up and quickly brushed herself off. The tiny pebbles fell off her clothes as her hand seemed to have a tiny breeze of smoke as she wiped her clothes.

"Fine, the next job will be a quick one right?" Jaune checked the area to see if no one was watching. He lowered his voice then he quickly walked forward and leading Cinder to the door with his hands on her shoulders. Cinder wasn't caught off guard as Jaune didn't have an expression of ill intent.

"The walls have ears." Jaune kept looking behind and watched to see if anything happened. The concern wasn't completely odd as Cinder shoved Jaune back. His chest felt the warmth that she had. Her expression was a blank one but Jaune's experience with women was enough for him to know Cinder was quite upset. He lifted his hands away from her and submitted to any kind of punishment. _I really hope someone can identify my corpse_. Jaune contemplated.

"I'm so sorry Ms. Cinder." Jaune didn't not stutter, he talked clearly and firm in his tone.

The young woman contemplated the apology. "Don't let _anything_ like that happen again, am I clear?"

"Crystal." By now Jaune lost his confidence with a goofy grin and his eyes were of worry.

"Moron." Cinder said coldly as she paced toward the staircase. "The next job will happen tomorrow; be ready and come meet me at my team's dorm." And like that Cinder looked ahead and left the staircase.

Jaune leaned his back to the wall and released a heavy sigh. _I really need to work on my people skills._ Taking a moment to heave for air, Jaune stood straight again. He made one more glance at the moon and decided to return to his dorm. His stroll was brief and during so, he mused about the possible effects of this situation.

At a four way intersection of the halls, Jaune turned to his right and there stood Cardin. He stood in front of Jaune in his armor of choice. They stared at each other as Cardin's team gathered around to berate Jaune.

"Hey Jaune."

"Hey Cardin."

Both of them did nothing. Without facing the situation, Jaune walked past Cardin. It wasn't a shove or a move of malice. Taking two steps the teammate with the Mohawk lifted his left foot high enough for Jaune to fall forward. Gravity did its thing as Jaune ignored the fall.

"How about you watch where you're going?" The teammate chuckled.

Cardin watched as Jaune lifted himself from the ground. The whole time, Jaune felt a growing boulder nudged between his shoulders, but nothing was there but air. Without looking back, Jaune kept walking until he reached his dorm. Jaune used his key to enter the room without waking his teammate Ren. Right beside him was Jaune's favorite comic Deathpool. Making a silent laugh, Jaune moved the comic away from Ren and placed it beneath the bed and walked to his bed. Jaune stared at the ceiling thinking about nothing. The moonlight gleamed through the windows and Jaune since he was little always preferred the night. Using the private time, Jaune carefully arranged the documents given to him by Cinder alongside his textbooks and classwork. Jaune finally took the time to study the potential jobs ahead. Each with their own risk and questionable motive. He kept reading for an hour as he rubbed his eyes at the end of it. Accepting the calls of his mind, he brushed his teeth then lay down on his bed. That night he dreamt of nothing.

"Wakey wakey!" A loud voice echoed pulling Jaune away from tranquility. Widening his eyes, Jaune rose from his bed. The loudest and happiest member of Team JNPR was out and about. Today class for Jaune the evolution of combat with Professor Port, then a history lecture with the energetic Dr. Oobleck, and dust chemistry with Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch. Not to mention his deal with Pyrrha, to train some more this evening. _Is that a still a thing? I should clarify with her later_. Looking over to the desk, everything that related to Cinder was tucked away in his backpack before he went to sleep.

"What going on?" Jaune looked to the digital clock to the room in the center. "It's 6:30, class doesn't start until 9." He yawned.

"Ah ha, that is where you're wrong, do you really know what time it is?" Nora smiled so brightly the sun could be jealous.

"Please do-" Ren pleaded.

"What time is it?" Jaune didn't hear Ren fast enough.

"Now you've done it." Ren rested his head down.

"It's pancake time, so get up and help me." Nora said to Jaune as she shook Ren's shoulder. "Come on upupup."

Jaune laughed to himself. This reminded him of the time where his youngest sister tried making breakfast for the whole family and nearly caused a fire. Jaune was the first to wake up and fine a mess of eggs, a stack of burnt toast, and his tiny five year old sister standing on her tip toes with a white chef's hat. He helped her the rest of the morning and received the blame for the mess. Now that little girl is twelve and cooking is her favorite hobby.

Ren looked over shoulder to see Jaune and noticed him wearing a pink apron with a white heart in the center. There was a white hat, and a glum expression of how tired both of them were. "She's not going to stop. So let's get started."

Ren rubbed his eyes and nodded. The three started and made plenty of pancakes as they finished Pyrrha entered the room from her morning exercise. Opening the door she saw Jaune with pastry on his cheeks as Ren and Nora where on the ground eating their meal. Jaune shrugged and passed Pyrrha a glass of orange juice.

"Rough morning?" Pyrrha said smugly.

"No, just living a memory." Jaune took off the apron and walked to his drawer and took out clothes for the day. Everyone did the same when they finished the breakfast and all of them left the room at the same time. Each of them separated and when they did, the scroll from the night before was ringing. Jaune checked the caller ID and there was nothing on it.

"Hello."

"Be ready to go when lunch is being served." A male voice ordered then hung up. Afterwards, Jaune went through his routine and started his classes hiding his emotion and everything went smoothly in Port's class. Ducking out before anyone could talk to him, Jaune hastly ran to the dorm, packing his equipment and made it to the airship station. There a man with long side burns was there waiting and drove an airship to meet the rest of the Cinder's team. With a short flight of five minutes, the airship hovered over a small building as Jaune had to fast rope down to get on the roof. Emerald was waiting and waved off the pilot.

Lunchtime.

"Get ready, there won't be any second chances." Jaune overheard as he pulled his mask of his head. It was the one he used in the bank hit a month earlier. In the driver seat, was Mercury in a grey suit, and wore a blank black mask. Underneath the mask was his a ski mask hiding his hair and other features. Jaune looked down as the semi-truck started. The Atlas military corporation preferred to have important information transferred physically rather than digitally. So with that, they don't take security of lightly. Armored trucks, fitted with the finest metals, security with DNA, and the self-supplied amount of metal soldiers. So today, they will break one and steal several secrets.

"The Truck is heading your way in thirty seconds." Cinder stated over the radio. As Jaune arrived he was given an earpiece, clean communication for the dirty work. Cinder is providing support, Emerald is on reserve so that leaves Jaune with Mercury.

"Ten seconds, go." Mercury started the truck and pulled out of parking.

"Anything on your end Emerald?" Jaune asked.

"Nothing, a city is nice enough to provide false comfort." Emerald kept is short and resumed watching the area of operation with her binoculars.

Soon an armored van came into view; Mercury hit the pedal as the truck charged at the van. Jaune was worried about his personal safety in the crash about to be made. The engine revved up as they there was a second of calmness. The truck was inches from the armored van. The forces clashed, glass twirling in stillness, and the tug of power. When it ended, Jaune blinked as his head was down on concrete, shaking the pain away, Jaune stood up with his MP5 sub machine gun. With this job as well, Jaune didn't wear any armor but just a vest with a suit he brought, taking the serious risk for maneuverability.

Mercury wore the body armor as well and he had Kevlar plates on his knees and his left arm as well. He wasn't carrying any two handed weapons but just a Glock 18 with extended magazines. On his feet however were two custom boots that pack some sort of weaponry.

The van was pinned to a wall and the semi-truck. In the front of the car were two droids. Mercury wasted no time and jumped on top of the armored van and looked down as he applied heavily weaponized thermal dust cylinders on the roof. Jaune kept an eye out and didn't see anyone respond quickly.

"The van is sending a call, hurry!" Emerald spoke quickly.

Mercury was taking a while so in Jaune's back pocket he pulled out an ECM jammer. (It disrupts signals in a small location.) Jaune placed it below the van.

"Great, it's halted by the police heard and are sending a squad car to check it out. You have forty seconds." After Jaune heard that he checked the front side of the car seeing that the droids were disabled.

"Get ready!" Mercury shouted as he jumped down. After five seconds, the top part of the van blasted in gas and steam. Mercury jumped up again and Jaune followed as well. Looking around inside Mercury discovered one human passenger with a droid missing arms. Inside was a man with a GenSec uniform. This was going to complicate things

The man took out a small handgun and aimed upward. _Crack_. Mercury kicked his arm aside and the man cried as the kick broke his arm. Mercury looked through the van. Jaune sporadically scanned the area with nothing in sight still.

"What's going on in there?" Cinder inquired with a hint of frustration.

"I'm looking for the documents, nothing's here but a thermal safe with a DNA lock.

"I trust you'll know what to do." Cinder said calmly.

Mercury looked down as he pulled the man by the collar. "Is your hand the key for the lock?" Mercury didn't relent in his voice; intimidation was a strong factor with masks.

"I...I...I."

"Screw this." Mercury raised his boot and before he could sever the man's arm, Jaune jumped down and shoved Mercury away. Before Mercury detested, Jaune kneeled down and looked at the man. He kept his mask angled downward.

"Do you have someone you love?" Jaune got to the point.

"I...I... I have a daughter. She's all I have left." The man looked down.

"I promise you'll get to see her again. Just open this lock and you will see her again." The man continued to be hesitant. "We are not here to harm you. Please open the safe and you will live."

The man couldn't find his voice but he nodded. In ten seconds the man opened the safe then sat down and cradled his broken arm. Mercury grabbed what they wanted and exited the car.

"You did this against your will. You won't be persecuted for the crime. Just wait here when help arrives." Jaune looked outside then back to the man.

"Can I say something?" The man stuttered.

"Shoot."

"You're in the wrong line of work. Get going. These vans are automated to send signals as it doesn't check in every five minutes. I didn't see ANYTHING at all." The man leaned his head back.

Mercury waited as Jaune exited the van. "We have thirty more seconds. Cinder somehow had the cruiser take a detour." Mercury had a small bag on his thigh. Jaune nodded as he pulled out his ECM jammer. The battery was almost dead.

"What's the escape plan?" Jaune panted.

"No time to explain. Just MOVE!" Mercury shouted. In the distance a couple of people noticed the pinned van. One moved her arm, this was a cell phone. The call was made.

Mercury kept leading the way as the two kept running as they kept running through vacant alleys. The run was dragging on and on for four more blocks.

"How much time do we have?" Mercury panted.

"Twenty seconds, after that there is plan B." Cinder informed.

The two kept running until Mercury suddenly stopped. He checked the area then opened a dumpster. "In, now." Jaune responded by keeping his speed and jumped into the opening and lay on his back and Mercury followed. The two waited for ten seconds as a loud engine roared the dumpster was moving. There wasn't anything beneath them as the doors of the dumpster opened and with gravity, the two fell into a dump truck. The smell and rancid, from what looks like a box inside was molded food. Probably frozen then tossed out. Maggots crawled out of the food.

The dump truck was the getaway. I drove for the longest time until the top opened again, with the bright sky and Jaune carefully checked the area. No army of law enforcement was there to end them. Jaune looked down. "It looks clear."

"Good, now let's get out, the smell is going to kill me. Jaune crawled out of the truck then kneeled down to pull Mercury out. Taking his hand, Jaune pulled Mercury out of the truck. The two walked out and jumped down from the truck. Low and behold, Cinder and Mercury waited for them.

"Did you get what I needed?" Cinder pulled her head back a tiny bit as the smell was still strong.

As it was down the man with the sideburns jumped from the truck and started walking out to the exit.

"So, are we in the clear?" Jaune fixed his mask.

"Cool mask, is that what you wore for the bank hit a month ago?" Emerald's expression was that of with great interest.

Jaune kept looking at Emerald; he didn't say anything to her and looked at Cinder. "Can I go now?"

"Hey jerk. It was a simple question." Emerald stood in front of Jaune. Mercury's body language was that of anger as well. Jaune lifted the mask upward to reveal his face.

"No, the first one cracked apart." Jaune pointed out as he lifted his hair back slightly to reveal a tiny scar at his hairline. Jaune took of his jacket, masks, and body armor. He gave the armor and weapon to Mercury.

"Can I go back to beacon now?" Jaune asked looking at Cinder.

"Yes, we're done for today." Cinder made a light gesture to point toward the exit; the man was waiting to take a small airship back to beacon. Jaune nodded and walked to the man to leave. All of this took forty minutes to pull off. The time for lunch ends in five. Jaune was no longer in view.

"Is that guy really worth the effort?" Emerald patted Mercury's back then immediately regretted the decision. She waved her hand around to hopefully remove the smell of trash. Mercury gave a look of "really?"

"Don't question my judgment. But to answer your question, he is." Cinder walked to the exit as the other two followed.

Beacon, fifteen minutes later.

Jaune quickly changed his clothes and washed his hair with shampoo with a bottle of water. He left his locker with his smelly gear and sprinted to class. Opening the door as slow as he can, Jaune entered the room and Headmistress Goodwitch noticed his entrance.

"Mr. Arc, need I remind you of how you must be on time." The entire class stared at him, among them was Ruby. She excitedly waved at him. Jaune looked down at the ground then took his seat. The rest of the class returned to the headmistress' lecture. As the class moved on to basic study of Grimm.

"Psst." Jaune looked from behind to see Ruby.

"Where've you been since lunch, all of us wondered where you were?" Ruby leaned in ever so subtly.

"I wanted to practice on my skills, alone." Jaune blinked as he said that.

"Oh okay, maybe one of us can help you sometime."

"Sure thing Ruby." Jaune continued to take notes. It went smoothly from there with an blinking light on his scroll, Jaune opened up to see a news article of a raided armored van. The surviving security man didn't see anything at all as the whole event confused police. More details coming by the hour. Underneath the email was a message. "Great work today, you were there in case of anything happened. You helped greatly in this situation. Good day." –C.

As soon as Jaune finished the email, he deleted it. Looking to his right was Blake and Nora.

"Hey Jaune, the teams were thinking of getting some ice cream from town, wanna join us?"

Jaune slid the scroll to his back pocket. Goodwitch's class was the longest one as she taught two subjects and so she marked for the end of the day.

"I'd love to." Jaune stood up to walk with the two.

**Hi there everyone, I made a new chapter of JNPR's payday. I guess this wasn't as so actioned packed but no every job has to have great amount of violence. I hope you've enjoyed the story so far.** **Man, RWBY ended on an odd note. I in no way hate the series and I still love it. The thing with all the sub-plots, the characters learning what they want to be, and there's Neo. All cool in their own way. I hope for Volume 3 the creators will do trailers for JNPR like they did for RWBY in the trailers. How awesome it would be for Jaune to have a fight we all wanted to see, how we want Jaune to evolve. Eh, just a thought. Thank for reading and have a great day.**


	4. Chapter 4, White Fan Vanguard

**I've learned to might be a PayDay movie. If so, that's awesome. The story is gaining traction, so let's keep going. :-D There will be two songs for this chapter. The first is "**Scrap**" by Blue Stahli. The seconds is "**Awaking the Chaos**" From the BlazBlue soundtrack.**

**First song:** watch?v=wcJE6B-z2dk

**Second song:** watch?v=Tr-PAnhgAhQ

It's been a week since Jaune had to do anything for Cinder and her crew. The three took the time to harass him time to time. Not by words but by their presence. So in hopes of killing the time, Jaune sought the help of Blake with his studying for the days he missed out on.

"Remnant has developed the Hunters system on what year?" Blake quizzed.

"I honestly can't remember that one." Jaune tried to balance a pencil on his nose.

"I can tell by your effort." Blake placed her hand on the table so she can rest her chin. Ruby was studying with them as well but decided to take a nap. Blake was on top of her classes seconded by Pyrrha then Weiss. She offered to help since Jaune needed to catch up.

"We'll work on that one later." Blake opened another textbook. "How's your time in class going?" See flipped the pages forward to the current chapter Jaune needed to work on.

"Fine, Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck made an outline for me to study. I got it after Port had to tell me of the time when he severed the beak of a Nevermore." Jaune dropped the pencil, it rolled over the table and Blake caught it before it could touch the ground. _Cat like reflexes… pun fully intended_. Jaune chuckled to himself.

"Ok according to the paper you need to understand chapter 5 and 7 by next week. I've got a class starting in twenty minutes so I trust you'll read the chapters?" Blake started to pack her belongings and shook Ruby's shoulder.

"Huh?" Ruby wiped her lips from drool. Her back ached from being hunched over for a while.

"Time to go, we got weapons training today." Blake looked toward the exit.

Ruby got up from her chair and stretched her back. "Alright, let's go." Ruby started to walk. As Blake left the library she dropped a book and didn't notice it. Jaune heard the thud and saw the book on the floor. The cover was '_The Ninjas of Love,_' Part 6 of 13.

"Oh cool." Jaune flicked the pages open and relaxed his back. He started the book since Blake was nowhere to be seen. He kept reading and after the first chapter, she appeared. "What's next?" Jaune lowered the book.

"Such odd reading material, did you get your chivalry from books?" Cinder sat the on the opposite side of the table. She wore the uniform for the school and wore a red undershirt judging from the sleeves. She also wore denim pants for some reason, Jaune didn't see the point.

"Partially, but it's more of me having a guilty conscience." Jaune kept his head still but checked the immediate area of her followers, no one else was here. Cinder was alone.

"The next job is tonight; meet us at the airship docks." Cinder kept scanned his textbooks. "Doing research?"

"For my classes. Will there be a need of heavier armor?" Jaune put the book down and set the title of it downward. Talking tough will be a thin façade for her to see through so Jaune decided to not even try to.

"No, and these are for you." Cinder passed Jaune a folder. Jaune opened it carefully to see several pages of printed paper. Each one of them was for his classes. This would make up for the homework he was falling behind on.

"Thanks, now can I be left alone?" He accepted the papers but had no intention of using them.

"No, I came here because I was bored." Cinder leaned back. Her body language was of comfort. _…Yay me… _Jaune opened another textbook.

"Do you really want to be seen with me? I could drag your reputation down a bit." Jaune made his play.

"Oh really, what's the student body saying?" Cinder's interest was piqued.

_Ah darn, well that backfired_. "The boys say you're pretty but no one is willing to make a move. I try to avoid it because gossip is gossip." _Please go._ Jaune found a paragraph with important notes he needs. Cinder noticed she was closer to his notebook. She slid it closer to him. "Thank you."

"How unsurprising, the thoughts of many will stay the same." Cinder smirked.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." That came off as mean so Jaune had to think of something quickly. "So where's your team?"

"They're walking around town out of boredom. I don't need to know where they are, just when I need them."

"So that's what people are huh? They're just tools?" Jaune said as he wrote down the note of Beo-wolves clans operating in interest of pack leaders.

"They are for the use of others; we exist to use each other. The job of our _cooperation_ is that similar interest of surviving the world." Cinder spoke calmly. "So what are you working on?"

"How Grimm impacts the world and if they're just evil or misunderstood." The paper would have been a difficult one to tell to the class but Dr. Oobleck was fine with it being just typed.

"Interesting paper, you want me have a shadow writer make it for you?" Cinder looked at her fingernails. Jaune was offended by the offer. Doing the work is what helps you understand the material.

"No need, I enjoy researching it actually." Jaune returned to writing more notes.

Cinder stopped looking at her nails. "Really?"

"Yep, I'd love to see the elephant Grimm migrate across the plains to their known plantation where they conceive their young." Jaune was serious on that thought.

"Well this became boring; remember to meet us tonight before ten." Cinder stood up.

"If you're so bored, might as well check this out." Jaune opened his bag and pulled out a smaller shopping back with a dozen comic books inside. Cinder never read them and so could say anything about them as they were slid across the table.

The first comic on top was named 'Maroon vs Violet,' published by Turkey Teeth.

"No thanks." Cinder kept walking and was no longer in sight.

Jaune shrugged and pulled the comics back to put into his backpack. He remained at the library until it was starting to get dark outside. His scroll beeped with a message. It was from Pyrrha.

Hey Jaune, you ready for more practice tonight?-P

Can it wait 2night? I want 2 wrk on my assignments.-J

Sure, I'll tell the team later.-P

Thx.-J

Jaune closed his scroll. He continued his work; the sun was setting for the longest time as Jaune closed his textbook. Underneath the table was a duffle bag of what he really needs for the job tonight. So with that, Jaune put off his belongings into his locker and made his way to the airship station.

There waiting for him was Cinder and her team. Emerald and Mercury wore nice suits for the job like Jaune. Mercury kept his grey suit as Emerald had a tailored beige suit.

"You debriefed yourself on the job right?" Emerald asked as Jaune walked past her.

"I did, we're breaking a weapons deal. The White Fang is in town and trying to get some illegal weapons from a corrupt division of the military." Jaune sat down and started to put on his gear. He leaned back and placed his armor on piece by piece.

"The trade is going down in a private section of the airport; the White Fang is there already. We take the weapons, then get out as soon as possible. From intel sources, the Fang has been making plenty of power plays." Emerald strapped the holsters of her revolver blades. Mercury did the same with his armor. By the time they were on the outskirts of the airport the team was ready. Cinder stayed on the airship.

"Don't botch this job, Jaune." Emerald clicked the chamber of her weapon.

The airship lifted off into the night sky. The team moved to across the street. Not a driver in sight. Emerald quickly pulled out a pair of plyers. After twenty seconds the gate was wide enough for them to fit through. They're now in the mission area; Jaune took a deep breath and pulled his mask down over his eyes. Jaune double checked his CM901, an advanced model. Although he was adapted to his sword and shield, these missions could be traced back to him. The weapon can shift into a sickle sword instead.

**Play the first song**

Looking around, everyone was alive and not machines. Jaune didn't sign up for this to kill people. The team separated, Cinder would provide sniper support. Jaune was backup, Emerald and Mercury were the ones who really knew the plan. The military was there was well and a man in a suit sold the weapons.

Looking up, Jaune noticed that Fang members patrolling the area. Jaune was hiding behind a dumpster. One member was getting very close. He saw Jaune and the two just stared at each other.

The Fang member blinked and dropped his weapon. "I never wanted to be part of this." The Fang member walked past Jaune and walked away from the corner. Jaune kept staring at the direction the ex-Fang member left.

"Time to move in." Cinder said over the comms.

After Cinder said that there was a flare shot into the sky. The Fang member watched the fire and many thought it was the military making a move. A double cross. Both sides jumped to conclusions as both side started to shoot at each other. The blue flare was used by the fang for them to know when to attack. The Fang Member outnumbered the military as they were wiped out in the sporadic gunfire.

Jaune kept ducking his head out from his location. A Fang member took cover behind a crate in front of Jaune. A perfect shot, Jaune kept watching. The Fang member ducked down to reload his weapon. He looked up and at the moment his head snapped back with his body as well.

Right in front of Jaune was once a living person. The front part of the face was dripping in blood; the head was angled upward to the right. The bullet hole was a perfect circle. The back of the head was a gaping hole. The mask was smashed apart by the bullet as the eyes had a shocked expression. This man's life ended at the end of a gun, Cinder's gun. Jaune checked himself as nothing was on his clothes.

"Get out here Jaune, most of the Fang members are almost wiped out." Mercury shouted. Jaune stood up to walk from his cover, so when he was ready he jumped out and sprinted to better cover. Nothing was left standing. Jaune looked around and saw nothing. Emerald walked past Jaune with her revolvers dripping with blood on the blade ends.

The area is clear. "The call has been made, we have ninety seconds before the police shows up." The team walked into the ware house as thick black cases were scattered about with two semi-trucks with trailers ready to move. Both doors were locked; Both Emerald and Mercury placed thermal dust charges on the doors then blew them open. The weapons were barely placed into the trailers. Emerald quickly began to stuff the weapons with several bags, Jaune did the same. Suddenly the sirens in the distance screeched.

"There is a sting operation, the police are moving in." Cinder informed over the comms. Jaune was passed several bags and tossed them into an alley on the other side of the hanger.

"Hey coward, take this too." Emerald shouted with another bag. It kept that way for thirty seconds.

"Brace yourselves." Cinder stated. Jaune turned around as three SWAT vans parked into the distance. A powerful fear consumed him. Then Jaune watched as a man with his face opened fire onto the machines heading their way. The figure outside blinked and Jaune realized he was in control again.

"Keep us covered, we're gonna move through the alleyways." Emerald shouted as she past him.

The flashes of light cracked with the wizzing of bullets. The machines are there to kill him. _I have to do this, I'm here and right now I NEED TO FIGHT_! Jaune focused his vision on the machines. The police took cover with the machines moving about. Jaune aimed down the sight with a squad of droids. They kept heading towards them but Emerald and Mercury kept to their tasks of stealing the weapons.

Jaune ducked his head down behind a chest high cinder block as three more droids kept firing. Jaune wasn't concerned for anything at that moment, his gun needed another clip. Looking up one droid was above him. Pure instinct took over as Jaune grappled the arm of the weapon and pulled the droid down. When it landed, he summoned all of this strength to twist and twist to snap the head off. The sparks stung his face as he shoved the machine away. Grabbing his rifle Jaune slid the magazine in for it to click. He leaned up to lay more suppressing fire.

Emerald was fed up with the bullets and tossed a bag down the alley. She turned her headset off. "We have a useless moron covering our backs. I don't trust him."

"I don't either but so what if he dies." Mercury chuckled, the two smiled in the thought. He turned his headset back on.

Jaune kept ducking his head from cover; he felt the occasional bullet wedge itself in his body armor. Two more droids walked toward him. Taking aim, he unloaded five rounds to slow the second droid. The gun _clicked_ empty. Jaune tossed his weapon forward to stun the first droid and he tackled it down as he landed Jaune pulled his M92F sidearm to end the second droid and looking down and placed his pistol in the temple area of the helmet. He sent a bullet to the central processor.

There was an occasion ping sound and that was Cinder's sniper fire. _What's a reserved boy doing the stuff soldiers would do? _Cinder thought as she shot a tire of a van entering the AO. (Area of Operation) The van swerved and toppled over.

"Hey Cinder the weapons are in ready to go. How's the coward doing?" Emerald laughed.

"Surprisingly well, now get to the van." Cinder bolted another round out her MSGR. It's a custom weapon she designed of precision sniping, also her favorite toy for these missions.

"Hey Jauney-boy, it's time to move." Cinder peered into her scope.

Jaune panted and noticed the police were starting to back off. He looked down as the machines he fought littered the area and his body wasn't seriously harmed. _How am I alive?_ Jaune pressed his hand on his ear. "Understood, is the van here ready to move?" He crouched and sprinted as fast as he could. Emerald and Mercury burst from the alley to take out another droid squad.

"Come on slowpoke." Mercury patted Jaune's back.

"I'm on the move." Jaune sprinted and stopped by hitting a dumpster. As soon as he did, a frightened moan echoed. Jaune lifted the large door to see the same White Fang member cowering inside. His eyes were red from tears and sporadic blinked.

"Stay inside and don't make any noise." Jaune looked up and around, lucky for him no one was watching. "Don't come out until the morning."

"Why spare me?" The Ex Fang asked.

"You're not stopping me from my Payday. Now shut up." Jaune closed the dumpster.

"Hey dumbass, you're taking the long way." Mercury spoke into the comms.

Jaune didn't respond as he sprinted up the hill to the fence and the other two were there waiting for him. He ducked through the opening and rolled onto the other side and entered the back of the van. "Why couldn't we use an airship?"

"It's because that we want this to look like some local gang move. Most are too stupid to use airships." Emerald cleared up as the van pulled away from the gate in fast speed. Jaune wiped the sweat from his chin. _Can I really do this?_

The driver was the same man who drove the airship but in a ski mask. "Ah shit. We got police airships!"

Emerald lowered her head to see a single airship. "I can't take the highway; it'll be too easy for them to follow us." Their driver shouted. Soon afterwards two police cars were in pursuit.

"They're on us like a fuckin' tail." Their driver made a hard right turn. Dodging cars and eventually they made it to a bridge that was over the highway. The highway was low road, above it was city block. "OH SHIT!" The driver lost control of the van and slammed it a concrete fence. The front end of the van was completely smashed.

Jaune blinked his eyes. His head was against the wall of the car. Looking around, Mercury was rubbing his forehead and shook it. Jaune regained his thoughts then started to move around. Emerald was the first to exit the van.

"There's no one yet. Cinder we need extraction NOW!" Emerald shouted as the two cars from before showed up. The airship backed off as Emerald aimed her pistols at the sky. What took Emerald off guard was the fact the police weren't moving any closer. Instead it seemed like they were being held off.

Jaune kicked the door open and there as an empty street greeted him. He fell to his knees. He stood up and noticed there were white dots moving all around. Then a White Fang member appeared and instead of threatening Jaune; the member instead jumped up to cover a security camera with spray paint.

**Play the song now**

"Uh, guys. We have trouble." Emerald stated as a heavily armored van parked.

The doors popped open a bit with steam seeping out. The doors lit up and a lone figure stood in the center. The figure was dressed in black, wore a white mask, and had crimson hair. "How dare you." The figure walked from the door to the middle of the street.

Mercury grunted as he rubbed his back. "You gotta give him points for presentation." He straightened himself. He bent his legs and stretched.

Emerald shook her head then pressed her hand on her ear. "Cinder, the White Fang's Vanguard is here."

"Vanguard, who's he?" Jaune stood beside them. He took a moment to wipe his face from sweat.

"No one knows his alas is Adam though. He kills in the name of the White Fang. Also, he is here to totally wreck our shit. So for now, we just have to survive." Emerald loaded fresh clips into her pistols.

"That sounds simple enough; except for how complicated it'll be to pull off." Jaune lowered his mask to cover his face.

"There's secondary transport on the way, you three hold off Adam while the driver moves the weapons to where the new vehicle will meet you." Cinder stated. She couldn't help but she kept sprinting over rooftops to their direction. "I'll be there in three minutes."

"Lucky us." Mercury sighed. Adam disappeared; Jaune noticed the same technique used by Blake in her sparring matches. Jaune pressed the button for his weapon to shift. _So he'll be_…

Jaune's weapon shifted into the sickle blade as it clashed against Adam's katana. "Right behind us." Jaune smirked.

"My my, do I finally have a challenge?" Adam mirrored the smirk of Jaune. Both blades grinded together for sparks to dance in front of their faces. Mercury and Emerald came at him on opposite sides. Adam shifted his sword upward for it to have Jaune back off. In a split second, Adam parried Emerald's blades, and he disappeared again. Mercury jumped in as his foot hit nothing.

"What the hell!" Mercury landed.

Jaune knew of Adam's next move. "Look up!" Jaune shouted in time as Adam backed off from the bullets that came from Emerald. If he didn't do that, there would have been two halves of Mercury for the coroner.

Mercury looked down and started to get angry. "How did you know that?"

"The Atlas military developed dust stealth clothing. Adam's here reflects light making it seem like he can go invisible, he's just really fast." Jaune shouted.

Adam appeared again by sliding forward was his sword and was ready to swipe his legs. Jaune took out his pistol with his free hand as he fired it at Adam; he of course deflected the bullets. Jaune ran out of ideas when Mercury stomping the ground for the granite below Jaune to shift as he rose and he jumped forward. It was millimeters from his flesh as Jaune landed on the opposite side.

"I've haven't experience this much fun in ages, who are you?" Adam back flipped to his feet. He walked to his right with his hand on the handle of his blade.

"We're the…" Emerald spoke up.

"Silence witch. I was referring to the one with the moon mask." Adam snapped. His thumb moved around in circles on the top of the handle.

"I don't have a name, sorry about that Adam." Jaune wanted to sound cool.

"You must have a title, because I want to remember this." Adam prepared to draw his katana.

"I guess we'll have to fight each other to find out." Jaune said without consulting his brain.

"Good answer." Adam, dashed forward as his sword was ready to slash horizontally. Jaune braced for the attack as his sickle blade was lifted in a reversed uppercut. It set the katana off course for Jaune to move his blade downward but was halted by Adam's katana.

Jaune recalled all the training from Pyrrha, Blake, and Ruby. They fight in a flow, disrupt the flow and they'll have to adjust. _Adam is no different, just keep using uncanny tactics_. Adam threw a blue flash grenade to blind anyone who looked at it. Then in that instant Jaune felt a tug on his stomach.

Looking down, Jaune saw the Katana slash through his armor but barely pierce the skin. He could tell by the cut and how it burned like a paper cut. It was a warning cut. Jaune looked up again to see Mercury and Emerald tag teaming Adam.

Mercury jumped up with his right leg ready for a downward crescent kick. Mercury kept her pistols spinning forcing Adam to block the occasional bullet. Mercury came down for the kick but he was too late as Adam lifted his sword to make a gentle cut on the calf of Mercury. "ARGH!" He landed and rolled forward but kept advancing.

Adam back flipped as he was no longer in view. Emerald remain vigilant, Jaune kneeled down to help Mercury on his feet. The three formed a triangle to watch all sides.

From there Adam appeared again and blasted his sword forward tripping Emerald with the back end of the sword. Taking hold of his sheath, it fired several bullets at them. One bullet grazed Emerald in the shoulder. Jaune felt a bullet skid off his mash. But something was off, he could sense it. _Adam can't use projectiles well._ Jaune's sickle formed back into the rifle and he fired several rounds in his direction. Nothing hit him one hit Adam on the shin. But the bullet was stopped completely.

Adam vanished again. _We can't stop him._ Adam appeared again with his sword inches away from Jaune's mask. "That was a great challenge." He smiled again. For some reason, the area around them began to heat up. Flames erupted around Jaune as Adam was caught off guard then jumped away.

"Hey Jaune, the van's here!" Emerald shouted as she jumped in with Mercury. The sirens in the distance started to blare again.

"Damn, I'm out time." Adam sheathed his sword again. "That was a good fight; I look forward to our rematch." Adam disappeared.

"Jaune, move." Cinder ordered. Jaune stood up and walked to the van. He entered it as the weapons were neatly stacked as their driver was in the front. After twenty minutes, the driver had the team successfully avoid the police. Jaune took his mask off; he started to calm down as the van stopped moving. The doors open with Cinder waiting outside.

"A close one, right everyone?" Cinder turned around as the three of them exited the van.

"Too close." Mercury forced a smile through his pain.

The driver jumped out of the van and walked beside the van. "Nice job everyone."

"He's outlived his usefulness, Emerald?" Cinder spoke calmly.

With that, Emerald stood straight and with one swipe the driver's throat was open as the man scrambled on the ground and stopped moving after ten seconds. Jaune's eyes widened.

"Before you ask the why. This man here sold us out." Cinder leaned her head back. "It was either you or him. He showed his true colors so no need to worry." Cinder walked to opened doors then sat down at the end of van.

"So what about the body?" Mercury had all the weight on one leg as his aura started to heal his wounds.

"I have contacts coming to move the van and dispose of the body. We're done for tonight." Cinder walked from the van and closed the doors. "Come now Jaune, we'll return to Beacon together."

Jaune looked down at the body. A life that is was no longer needed. _What did I get myself into_?

**The chapter was hot and ready for you. I hope you liked the action in this chapter with Adam. I hope you also enjoyed the music, I thought it fit the situation. Anyways, please tell what you think and have an amazing day.**

**Lucio BetaBlake: **Thank you saying it is interesting. I hope you like this chapter.


	5. Chapter 5, Escalation

**Hi everyone, thank you for returning for another chapter.**

Jaune walked past the body of the man and turned to Cinder. All the words came rushing to his head as he said nothing. He walked beside the criminals and kept his eyes forward but didn't register what he saw. It was a just a the side of a brick building.

"So Jaune, how did you know how to fight Adam so well?" Mercury gently tapped his shoulder. The job tonight may have gone much differently without Jaune's help. Mercury didn't have any previous malice like before the heist began. Jaune didn't know what to make of it, was it respect?

"Just training mostly, also Adam seems to be a predictable fighter." Jaune admitted as his mind returned from space. During the walk down the dark street a limo was waiting at the end for them, under the street light. The limousine was pure white with red interior.

"What's this?" Jaune blinked.

"Eh, just wanted to go home in luxury is all." Cinder smirked. Jaune didn't say anything as he walked to the far back passenger door and opened it for everyone.

"Why thank you." Emerald punched Mercury in the arm. "You can learn a thing or two from him." Mercury feigned pain in his arm and gave a friendly smirk to Jaune. His expression of that of '_Thanks a lot_.'

"Yeah right." Mercury entered the car. Inside was a black seat with dim blue-purple lights. Cinder was the last one to enter the limo. She was content with the outcome of how tonight's heist went.

"I'm going to find my own way back to Beacon." Jaune said as Cinder passed.

"Fine, here take this." Cinder had 500 lien in her hand. She sat in the seat and looked up to Jaune.

"Sure." Jaune took the money then closed the door, the limo drove off and Jaune watched as he walked along the sidewalk. He took out 10 lien for the bus and public airship; he put the rest of the lien in his back pocket. The town was pretty this time of night; the lights over the city had variety, salesmen projecting false happiness, and citizens in bliss. He kept walking around for twenty minutes and ignored his scroll ringing. He didn't look at the call ID and found a nice place to sit down. A bench that wasn't in the way of the people passing by, he kept his slow pace and sat down.

As he sat there, he watched people walk by without a care for the world. Atlas is here ready to declare martial law, the Grimm is still harassing the borders, and there aren't enough Hunters being trained to handle it all. _What I am supposed to do_? Jaune looked up with a neon light in the shape of smiling bowling ball.

"Jaune, What are you doing here?" A feminine voice called. Lifting his head, Jaune saw Weiss with several shopping bags. From the looks of them, they didn't belong to any store chain because the lack of logo.

"Hey Snow Ang- Weiss." Jaune cut himself off.

Weiss did a brief laugh. "What brings you here?" She sat down with the two small bags by her side.

"Nothing really, I just wanted to clear my head." Jaune gave some false confidence in his voice. He usually spoke that way so his worry slipped past Weiss.

"Oh, I just never saw anyone form either of our teams here, so I got curious." Weiss looked out to the people. Jaune fixed his posture then leaned over to get a look at her bags. She noticed his gaze.

"This district has a unique dust shop. There they sell dust mixed with other basic chemicals. They aren't bad or anything. I just wanted to do more dust experiments for personal study." Weiss set her bags down.

"Is that why there was a crater in the middle of Beacon's walkway?" Jaune smiled.

"Hey that was all Ruby and not me." Weiss frowned making Jaune laugh.

"Right and all those dust cases were conveniently there for her to sneeze on." Jaune prodded Weiss.

"Whatever, well just forget that I tried to say hi." Weiss stood up.

"You know I'm kidding. You hang out with Yang all day so you should be used to it." Jaune deadpanned.

"She does get tiresome at times; well I must bid you a due." Weiss picked up her bags.

"Right you don't want to be seen with a loser like me." Jaune waved her off. Weiss rolled her eyes and blended into the crowd then disappeared. Jaune chuckled to himself and knew feeling sorry for himself won't make anything better so he made his way to the closest airship station to return to Beacon. It was on the last three flights so he got there in the nick of time. The ship lifted off as Jaune watched the shattered moon glimmer amongst the clouds. He felt a peace whenever he watched the moon, he doesn't know why and he didn't want to.

The airship landed with him slowly making his way to the dorms. He checked his scroll to see a message from Blake.

I can't help tonight; my class gave me a major assignment.-B

Jaune texted her back. No problem, I'll be fine.-J

The walk to the dorms was brief as the lights made the whole school seem as it was in some sort of stillness. He walked to his dorm, the halls echoed his every step and he used his key to unlock the door. Nora and Pyrrha were sleeping as Ren was awake with a small lamp and more of Jaune's comic books.

"Study hard?" Ren asked as Jaune started to undress to change into his onesie.

"Yeah." Jaune said when he was fully changed. He lay down and drifted to sleep.

BEEP BEEP BEEP. Jaune's tired mind was torn from its trance for the room alarm clock. Every time this happens the team wouldn't move until one of them would be annoyed enough to press the snooze button. Everyone except Nora who could sleep through an explosion. Jaune moved his legs as Pyrrha jumped down from her bed to press the button.

Everyone got up for the day and it was Pyrrha's turn to try to wake up Nora. Ren and Jaune left for the cafeteria.

"So, how's everything going?" Ren yawned into his hand.

"Not bad, Mr. Oobleck wants me to type a report for him." Jaune kept walking and halted at the sight of Mercury and Emerald down the hall.

"What's wrong?" Ren stopped as well. He looked at the same direction at the others.

"Nothing, I just forgot something." Jaune was ready to turn around.

"Don't worry; I can message Pyrrha with my scroll." Ren held his scroll up as Jaune noticed Mercury and Emerald walking his way.

"What's wrong Jaune?" Ren stepped into his way.

"I uh-" Jaune's back felt the pressure of a hand. "Meep." Jaune squeaked as he turned around to see Mercury and Emerald walk past him. Both had calm expressions and didn't have an expression of harassment.

"Was that it?" Ren blinked. "I know the competition this year will be stiff but there's no need to be scared." He walked on so Jaune followed.

"Sorry about that, I've been nervous about failing." Jaune gave half of his worry.

"Oh, well I can help you whenever you need it." Ren smiled.

"Thanks." Jaune gave a half laugh as the tension eased from his shoulders. The two made it to the cafeteria. Blake and Ruby were already there. Soon everyone else came and the day went off without a hitch. The classes moved on as they normally did until lunch.

"Did you hear about a possible gang war brewing between the White Fang and some other factions?" Yang lead on the table. The group was in the middle of idle conversation instead of complaining about school life.

"No, what happened?" Blake asked as she kept staring her book. He bow twitched as she can still listen and read.

"Some weapons deal was going down at the airport but a third party came in a wretched everything." Yang made a devious smirk. "Nothing is known about third party but the media dubbed them as the _Payday Gang_." Yang scanned everyone's expressions.

"The Payday Gang?" Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"Yes you broken record. They operate in a small team wearing masks, have military-weaponry, and have knack for tough jobs. A survivor of last night's event had one of them said the word 'Payday' hence the name. Also, I heard that the masks is what makes them scary. You know a symbol of power."

"Hiding behind a mask, what cowards." Weiss scoffed. Everyone at the table had mixed feelings about the whole affair.

"The masks are just masks; there isn't any real meaning behind them." Ruby crunched on a cookie. Her lunch was the largest among the two teams.

"That is just you under thinking it. Those thugs need to be taught a lesson of society; I'll have my rapier ready in case we ever run into them." Weiss frowned and was slightly excited on the thought.

"The Payday gang, a name of strong money seeking mercenaries. Now that sounds like a group that isn't hiding anything with the masks." Ren thought out loud. Jaune remained quiet on the conversation besides giving the generic responses.

"You know their bad and should be treated like such." Jaune deadpanned. He remained in false confidence, but everyone as already familiar with that trait a long time ago. He inhaled his food and made sure to leave before he gets asked the challenging questions. As Jaune stood up he came across Neptune and Sun. Two transfer members of another team.

"Neptune, Sun." Jaune bowed. Neptune is the kind of guy who just loves to be cool. Saying that doing nice things is lame. Doing schoolwork is lame. Everything's lame. _If the world is so lame, why bother complaining and become a shut in?_ Though Jaune did admit, his wardrobe was cool along with his goggles. _Well whenever I try helping people I just get stuck in odd situations._ Jaune made a slight nod to himself from his thought. Like the time, I learned that my oldest sister's boyfriend cheated on her with another girlfriend and Jaune was labeled as a liar. She learned the truth two weeks later.

"Nice to see you too Jaune." Sun patted Jaune's shoulder as he walked past him. Sun was a person who seems to be on terms with himself. A Faunus proud to be a Faunus… and his abs._ I know in Vacuo the people aren't formal but still, we get it. You're proud of your physic._ Jaune grinded his teeth for a moment before he put the rest of his scraps into a trash can. _Both are still good people, these are just the thoughts of a loser who doesn't offer much._ Jaune wanted to sigh but he saw the smiles on team RWBY and JNPR's faces when the duo started talking to them.

Jaune knew about the potential of his actions could do. _I'm not worth saving, but my team is._ The notion was furthered as Mercury walked beside him.

"The Payday Gang needs to discuss our next move."

"Sure." Jaune kept looking at everyone and walked to leave the dorm. Both of them walked to the main doors and Jaune opened it and kept it open for other people before moving on. Mercury watched Jaune with his arms crossed.

"Playing the chivalry card too much and people will think you're a moron." Mercury lifted his crossed arms in the shrug.

"People can think whatever they will. No need to worry there though, because with chivalry… I'm bringing it back." Jaune pointed his finger with he a teeth exposed grin.

"God, you're such a loser." Mercury separated his arms and started to walk.

"… I know…" Jaune dropped his smile. Down the path, the cafeteria doors opened up to see Jaune with Mercury. The figure watched as the two walked to the transfer dorms.

"Where are you going?" The figure frowned.

Cinder's dorm room, twenty minutes until lunch ends

The door opened and inside was Emerald and Cinder. Both of them sitting down with a plate of sliced cake. There was no more as the rest of the cake wasn't in sight.

"Alright Boss, Jaune's here." Mercury walked to the opposite side of the table to get a decent overview of the room. Jaune remained standing in the center of the room at attention to Cinder.

"Last night's job went splendidly. So now that the White Fang has been weakened, we need to do the same for the strongest gang in Vale." Cinder carefully cut a piece of cake with her fork.

"And that gang is?" Jaune left the sentenced unfinished on purpose.

"Junior's gang. A sorry excuse of a gang. To hurt them, we need to hit them where they live." Emerald spoke up, Cinder made a slow glare at her. Emerald wasn't afraid though. The two were beginning to have fun in making Jaune attempt to be a mind reader.

"Have you ever heard of The Tasteful? It's a nightclub downtown. That location is the base of operations, a fortress that stores it's profits deep inside. In one month, we're going in and cause some chaos." Mercury interjected. He leaned in and snatched Emerald's plate of cake.

"I didn't come across this in the documents you gave me." Jaune recalled his studies of the paperwork. He answered his own question as he asked it. _Like they would tell me everything… idiot._

"It's about trust. Trust is difficult to build and easy to break. The thing about this task is that we need information. So before we he hit the nightclub we have to do a favor for one of his Lieutenants wants some compensation for his assistance." Cinder watched all of Jaune's movements. Body language says much about a person and Cinder will have no weakling ruin her plans.

"Don't you have some money left over from the bank job?" Jaune learned he needed to be careful in asking for information.

"We invested it for another task later on. So I need you to take care of this. The three of us have other matters that need attending." Cinder watched Jaune's expression remain blank. Before he could protest, the door to the room opened, and in walks a young woman with an umbrella.

"Jaune, this is Neo, she'll help you in this task. As for the rest, you need to take care of."

Jaune took a good look at the girl. She wore black gloves, white jacket with pink cuffs and collar. The white shirt was a crop top as below it was a black undershirt. The crop top had a cap like quality was it hung below her black boots. Her hair was different colors at the seams as the left side was pink and the right was a dark brown. Her eyes were of different color as one was a light violent and the other was pink. She blinked and the color of her eyes swapped. _Neat trick_. The cherry on top was the creamy umbrella she had in her hands. Her skin was a fair pale shade. She was indeed very beautiful.

"Pleasure to meet you." Jaune offered his hand. Neo looked down, back at him, and turned to Cinder.

"I know, he doesn't seem like much but I still want you to follow his orders." When Cinder finished speaking she turned to Jaune then made a light bow.

"Do you have the scroll we gave you?" Mercury asked.

"Uh, yeah." Jaune pulled out the second scroll and lightly tossed it Mercury. In his hand was a tiny sim card and slid it into the scroll then tossed it back to Jaune.

"There is a variety of contacts that can help you. So now you just need to figure it all out now. Just remember you need to raise 50,000 lien in a month, got it?" Mercury wasn't speaking in anger but with a hint of hope. As much as it pained to admit it, Mercury had started to respect Jaune after last night's job. This wasn't out of attraction just giving a little bit of false hope to ease the tension.

"You're also being given, 15,000 lien for the task. It is not wise to use it to run off, remember that." Emerald placed her right hand on her revolver.

"Understood." Jaune lied. _I was just given a job, a helper, money for expenses, and a contact list of shady individuals. This gone from crappy to FUBAR. _Jaune placed the phone in his back pocket. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"No, that is all. Remember, one month. That was the timeframe our contact has given us." Cinder finished her cake.

"Alrighty then." Jaune turned around as Neo followed. The door opened then closed. Jaune walked down the hall as Neo walked behind him in confidence with her trusty umbrella.

Jaune stopped and so did Neo. "What's you alas here at Beacon?" Jaune needed to know.

She held her umbrella with one hand then reached in her pocket. She pulled out her wallet then showed her student ID. It read as her name was Neo Frost, a freshman, and is her for the tournament at the end of the semester. Her team remained in her homeland as she traveled to Beacon alone. Everything checked out of what he needed to know.

"Okay Neo, pleasure to meet you." Jaune opened the last door as walked into the sunlight.

Above was Emerald and Mercury, they watched as Jaune was talking to Neo.

"We have enough lien to do the Nightclub job now, why wait on him?" Mercury asked.

"Cinder wants to test his resolve; he's good at helping in a heist, but what about planning one? That is what we're going to learn." Emerald stated. Mercury nodded and to the two went to do something else.

The Main Courtyard

Neo kept walking as several onlookers watched from afar. Jaune didn't pay them any attention and pulled out the scroll given to him. "Well this escalated quickly."

**You know, this story has become much more. It was going to be just another job the I was planning to end it. But after a bag of goldfish flavor blasted crackers and a can of cherry-coke, I had a massive brain storm to add to this story. So Jaune has to continue to work for Cinder and is tossed into the fire. Will he bake or figure something out. It's so exciting. I also change the title to relate better to the story. Please leave a review and have a great day.**

**Lucio BetaBlake:** I always address reviews in my stories because there could be another reader with a question or thought similar to the reviewer. I'm just answering for everyone no matter what the review is about. Thank you for enjoying the story so far. Have an excellent day.


	6. Chapter 6, The Technician

3 hours later since the meeting with Cinder

Jaune looked up as there were the glares from several students as he sat in the dorm with his new companion. _Should I make a joke and call her Minion?_ She sat there looking around then made a brief smile. It was a too perfect; something about her smile had Jaune felt uneasy about her but now was not the time. _Calling her minion is a horrible idea_.

His classes ended for the day as his team were had other instructors to see and RWBY is off on an assignment to kill some Grimm at the borders. So that means for several hours Jaune and Neo will be alone to plan their next move. Jaune didn't have the slightest idea on what to do first.

"What do you think we should do?" Jaune asked as Neo twirled her umbrella.

Neo turned to him then blinked.

"I was thinking about hitting a series of gas stations and then visit the towns close by to do the same thing."

She blinked.

"Terrible idea, terrible idea. You're right." Jaune's mind constructed Neo's thoughts for him to keep some of his own sanity. "The banks close by probably stepped up in security from my team's job last month. So we can't do anything like that…" Jaune kept thinking and thinking.

She blinked again.

"How about a Jewelry store?"

Neo nodded her head to the left then right, her eyes looked toward the ceiling. It was a maybe gesture.

"Yeah, Jewelry does sound like a simple job but it's the best we got." Jaune turned away from his desk while on it was the scroll and papers given to him. There was the 15,000 lien for his task. If Jaune checked out some lien from his personal savings there will be an additional 3,000 lien to add to the pool. A total of 18,000 lien for him to truly work with. Neo kept looking over the documents as Jaune was ready to tear his hair out. There was a tap on his shoulder.

Neo was looking over the documents and Jaune walked with her to assess the situation. Both of them kept thinking for twenty more minutes. Jaune was looking through the documents and below there was a newspaper of the Remnant Herald. On the front page was a picture of an art gallery grand opening. Inside was new paintings from the world all over. Jaune and Neo realized what they should do.

"Do you want a pizza?" Jaune asked with Neo responding with a light nod. He dialed the numbers and placed an order for a pepperoni pizza with a side of bread sticks. He closed the window on his scroll then turned around.

"We're going to hit the art gallery." Jaune spoke coldly. Neo watched then gave a strong nod.

"Before we go, I need to know, what can you do?" Jaune was worried about over stepping his boundaries. Neo stood straight then with her right index finger she gave her temple two light taps. She then closed her umbrella then gave a 'come at me' gesture. Jaune caught on then charged her. In a moment she leaned back then twirled around him then pushed him to the ground. Her boot was at his throat. After she finished she then offered the end of her umbrella to help Jaune to his feet. After that Neo walked to Jaune then walked to the opposite side of him then revealed his wallet in her hands. When she finished she looked at Jaune then bowed.

"You assess the situation, you're great at hand to hand, and can gain access to anywhere because you can pickpocket people. What about weapons?"

Neo smiled as she tugged the handle of her umbrella to reveal a steel sword. When Jaune got a good look at it, she sheathed her sword then made a gun shape with her hands. The index finger pulled an invisible trigger then her other hand formed a ball then her fingers spread out.

"You have a sword and you prefer to use shotguns." Jaune learned all he needed. She would be the Enforcer if the task at hand would be too heavy in combat. It was a little crazy to think so, but Jaune concluded he would be a Mastermind of this upcoming heist much like Cinder. Jaune shook his head; _I'm nowhere as bad as that vile fiend_.

By the time the two began to sort the details there was a knock at the door. Neo arranged the paperwork, and she placed the contacts scroll in her back pocket. Jaune opened the door to see a teenager in a pizza delivery uniform. He was a young man with a narrow expression and he looked to be bored.

"A delivery for a Mister Arc?" The boy asked.

"That's me." Jaune was pulling the lien out of his back pocket. Jaune remembered this teen. He's a student here at Beacon as well. He and his team are upperclassmen by a year. _I just can't remember his name._ The team is a bunch of heavy hitters though this guy here is usually left out on the missions. Jaune passed him the money.

"Thanks if you please sign here and write down my name. It's an assessment piece my employer is doing. It's stupid I know."

"No worries, what's your name?"

"Tomas Wolfe." The young man had small gruff on his chin with his eyebrows naturally narrowed slightly. His eyes were of a darkened hazel and he stood almost as tall to Jaune. The bulk of the student was slightly slimmer than Jaune's.

"Alrighty then, here you go." Jaune passed the paper back to Wolfe. He accepted it then tipped his hat at Jaune. To surprise the delivery boy, Jaune paid Wolfe with a hundred lien tip. _Eh, could brighten up his day._ He closed the door and the steamy pizza with Neo sitting down licking her lips.

The two began snacking on the pizza. "So now that we got a target in mind. Because considering how we didn't talk about it. We had the same thought on the Art Gallery right?" Neo was passed a slice with a paper plate and fork. She nodded when it reached her. "Okay good."

"So what do we need? I mean a bank is one thing but a gallery has to have the same if not better security." Jaune gnawed on his slice. Neo shrugged then pointed to all the corners of the room. Jaune looked everywhere she said, but nothing was there. It took a moment, and then he realized what Neo meant. _So we need to case the place, determine what we'll need, have an extraction plan, and find a buyer. How the hell am I going to do that!? _Jaune swallowed the last bite of his pizza.

Neo waved then pointed at her forehead then pointed downward then up. She was telling Jaune to relax. He took a deep breath.

"I'm not the best under peer pressure." He admitted. So with the basic plan in mind the two agreed to end it for the day. As Neo left the dorm, a friendly Valkyrie walked in a moment after.

_Ah darn…_ "Hey there Jaaaauuuunnnneeee." Nora spoke with a wide grin. She hopped in front of him so he couldn't avoid her.

"Who's the pretty girl?" She leaned in closer to his left shoulder.

"A friend who is helping with my studies, nothing more, nothing less, alright?"

"But you already have Blake, Pyrrha, and me. All of us can help you study." Nora walked to her bed then started to search for something.

"I know, but I hate being a burden on everyone else. I'm still trying to figure all of this out, alright?" Jaune was telling part of the truth. It must have worked as Nora's expression shifted to calm as well.

"Okay Jaune, I trust you. It's not like I'm telling you that you can't have other friends outside of your team." Nora said as she found her lucky purple pen. That pen is her supposed good luck charm for class. She spotted the pizza then snatched the final slice. She placed the pen in her pocket. "I was just looking for this. Good luck, Jaune." Nora smiled as she left the dorm.

Jaune looked down as he hated that phrase. _I trust you._ That one line pierced the essence of his soul causing the invisible boulder on his back to double in size. He carefully hid the documents within his papers for class and kept the contacts scroll in his under jacket pocket. Looking through the newspaper there was an article saying the gallery will be opened that night for a fee of 50 lien. Jaune thought nothing of it and walked to the airship station.

He walked down the gallery as everything was completely new to him. He noticed cameras and circular holes in front of the display cases of the paintings. He stayed there for two hours and remained silent as the people swarmed around him. He shook his head and left the gallery. _I have no idea on what to do_. Jaune didn't want to succumb to the pressure of the task.

He exited the gallery, learning little to nothing. At the steps was Neo with her trusty umbrella. She opened it and lifted it over him.

"Thanks Neo." He sighed. _You can do this, Jaune. _

On the walk back, nothing happened as Neo remained silent to everything Jaune said as the two made their way back to Beacon. _How can we do this with just the two of __us?__ Wait a second… It doesn't have to be the two of us…_ Jaune smiled and turned to Neo.

"We need to find someone to join us but has the expertise for the task." Jaune spoke quickly but Neo still understood most of what he said. "Neo, what we need is a Technician."

Neo raised an eyebrow in response. She pulled out her wallet then shook it.

"I know it'll be tough, but if we paid her or him when we get the cash we need then we'll be okay. I'm not a genius but I think it's a decent idea." Neo stared at him blankly.

"Come on, we need to figure out who'll help us."

The two returned to Beacon then walked into a secluded corner of the library and the two began to screen and read of all possible candidates. There were about two dozen and after three hours the list was narrowed to four.

"As much as I hate to admit it, what we have is Neptune, Dove, Mercury himself, and Ruby as our potential Technicians. I really don't want to ask any of them." Jaune opened the scroll display to see if any of the names had 'Available for hire' under their name. Sadly, none of them were.

"Eh, at least the idea was a decent one." Jaune leaned back on his chair. Neo had her hand on her chin without hiding the fact she was bored. In the corner of her eye something moved. She blinked then tossed a pen like a stiletto. The figure stood at attention and stood still as Neo made her approach. Jaune scrambled all the papers together in a folder. _I really hope it's not who I think it is_. The individual came into view as Neo pulled him by the collar. The person was Tomas Wolfe. Jaune was relieved to know it wasn't someone he knew.

"Ugh, hey Jaune. I wasn't trying to spy on you." Wolfe nodded quickly damning himself on being loose with words.

"What brings you here?" Jaune kept his head still as his eyes scanned the area. Neo did the same and her blank expression turned into a stern one. It was her way of saying there was no one else around.

"Sorry Jaune, I wanted to thank you on the tip you gave me last night on the delivery." Wolfe eyes widened while being man handled by Neo. "I didn't hear anything, I just got here." Neo looked at Jaune, she frowned. Jaune nodded then Neo shook his collar.

"Okay okay, I overheard that you needed a Technician. I'm the best there is and I'll help you." Wolfe pleaded.

"So what do you know because if you lie to me one more time, I can't be held responsible for what happens next." Jaune bluffed.

"That's all I know, I swear." Wolfe would continue and Jaune didn't want to destroy another man's pride.

"Fine, you said you're a Technician right, just how good are you?" Jaune asked.

"Well, I'm pretty good, I constructed all the weapon mods for my team. In childhood, I had too much time to myself so I learned how to work on anything. Drills, computers, cameras, and anything else. Not the best resume but since when could anyone give a perfect one?" Wolfe chuckled nervously.

"Neo please release him." Wolfe's feet dropped to the carpet. He didn't take the time to adjust his collar.

"The last thing I learned was that you guys are members of the Payday Gang." Wolfe exhaled but then tugged at the collar again. "Before you found me, I used my scroll to hack your scroll. That contact list has a lot of dangerous people. Listen please, I can help you. I know that we just met but I think there is a real opportunity with you guys… and gal. Just give me a chance."

Jaune stood there for what seemed like an eternity. _This is a little too good to be true, I'll just roll with it for now_.

"Neo, I guess we found our new member. Welcome." Jaune shook Wolfe's hand. Wolfe smiled then it quickly faded as Neo shoved him aside.

"Thanks so can I use my scroll real fast?" Wolfe fixed his collar.

"Be careful in what you do." Jaune said as Neo turned around to stare at him.

Wolfe nodded then called someone over his scroll. "Hey boss, I quit." With that Wolfe closed his scroll turned to Jaune. "Now I have all the time in world."

"Wow, you're gutsy." Jaune smiled.

"I've wanted to do that since day one." Wolfe smiled. "So what do you need?"

The Next Day, Lunchtime.

"Hey Jaune, you going to sit at the table?" Ruby asked as Jaune walked with her.

"I'd love to but I'm meeting up with some other friends, sorry." Jaune kept walking toward the doors leading to the gardens.

"That's great, don't worry about us. Go meet other people." Ruby shooed Jaune away.

"Thanks for understanding, see you later Ruby." Jaune jogged on ahead with his plate in hand to meet Neo and Wolfe in the courtyard.

Jaune met the other two under a tree as lunch went on. "Thanks for doing this Wolfe, what did you find out?" Wolfe ditched class last night to visit the gallery then he compiled a list of what kind of security they'll come across and what to prepare for.

"Alright, the place is under the typical GenSec security with armed guards walking sections of the gallery. The cameras are civilian models, so there's no need to worry on night or thermal vision. The main server and security room are one and the same. If we get into the security room, then we can steal as many paintings as we could carry. The thing to worry about is the automated security bots, they send signals to law enforcement at confirmed threats, while the guards use their radios to inform the security room. Those holes by the paintings are steel bars to lock in place to prevent theft when the alarms are triggered. Moving on, we need two thermal drills for us to break in to the security door if things get hairy. I can build two by tonight, but I need about 1,000 lien for the materials."

"Done." Jaune responded without any time to think about it. Wolfe grinned at the thought of doing what loves. Building stuff.

"The standard time for the police to respond to our actions will take about two minutes then we're done for. The guards of the place seemed to have grown into a state of boredom so we can add that to our list of advantages." Wolfe gave the load down.

"So what do we do to get in and out?" Jaune inquired taking a sip of his drink.

"I don't know, that's your department." Wolfe shrugged.

Jaune placed his right hand over his chin. Then Neo waved at the two of them. She used her fork to point at the ceiling of one of the buildings of Beacon. It had a glass skylight.

"Great idea Neo. We enter through the skylights." Jaune pointed out for Wolfe.

"I took a look at the windows, they're civilian windows, as in not bulletproof. Heh, I'm kinda mad at myself for not realizing that sooner. Now that's settled, what's our extraction plan?" Wolfe turned to Jaune.

"I've contacted a man called Bane and he told me about a driver named Richard. The man is apparently a fearless driver. He wants 6,000 lien for his services and we never contact him again not until we start the heist. Along with our escape, I've called a buyer for the paintings. He had his eye on them for a while and is willing to pay 40,000 per painting. If we just get two at least then we'll have what we need.

"Wow, 40,000. Is it too late to ask for a raise?" Wolfe smiled.

"Yes. You agreed to help for a modest fee, I'll determine the amount if we survive this, alright? The buyer wants to meet in the Lakewood district in a decommissioned train yard for us to do the trade. Richard will be there as well and we'll hopefully bug out before the police retaliates." Jaune responded honestly.

"Sure thing boss." Wolfe leaned his back against the tree they're under.

Neo nodded at the plan. Jaune realized in all of the commotion he just planned out a heist to do with two people he doesn't know anything about.

"So Wolfe, what else can you do besides machines and engineering?" Jaune asked after Neo elbowed him to ask.

"Well, I'm not the best fighter as I was labeled to be the weakest of my team. I'm decent with firearms as my weapon of choice is this." Wolfe lifted his weapon to shift into a Glock 18 pistol with a blade running alongside the barrel of his weapon. It shifted into a Brass knuckles. "I'm not saying I'm terrible, just not the best or greatest. I'll keep an eye out for the tech stuff, you make sure we don't get killed in the process." Wolfe said before he took a sip of his soda.

"Why are you helping us out in all of this, if you don't mind me asking." Jaune said as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"Let's just say my team abandoned me and I need the funds. I don't want to talk about it, is that okay Boss?" Wolfe's expression narrowed a bit but he wasn't angry.

"No need, seriously, thanks for helping us. It means a lot to me." Jaune spoke from the heart. Jaune appreciated the effort Wolfe provided in less than a day. _Maybe there isn't anything sinister after all?_

"There's just one thing." Wolfe made a sadistic but ironic smile. The kind where you're about to anger someone but you're not sorry for doing so. (Troll face) "I need a mask."

Jaune laughed at the blatant request. "So what kind of designs did you have in mind?"

Outside the Art Gallery, Three days later.

"Alright Payday Gang, I'll be here in the parking lot until you arrive. Just hurry up, I got dinner plans later tonight." Richard shouted from the driver seat of the car.

Neo was first to walk out of the van with her mask of a sad and happy expression. It was split in the center, as the right side was of a dark brown as the left side was of a cool pink. From one training session, Jaune learned that Neo loves shotguns. So in the purchase of SPAS-12 with foldable Kevlar, Wolfe modified that stuff together to form an Umbrella shotgun for Neo. A custom compartment was built to house her sword as well. Neo wore a pink and dark brown suit that was split at the seams. The jacket was split in half. The left side was pink, the right dark brown and the opposite sides for her pants and shoes. Neo lifted her Umbrella on her shoulder to make room for Jaune to exit the van in his combat gear.

Jaune's gear was that his right forearm had his shield and his weapon was that of a Vacuo manufactured Knight's SR Assault Rifle. He loaded a fresh magazine into the weapon. Even for this job, Jaune's trusty sword is in the compact form as it is on the opposite forearm of his shield. The Crescent mask reflected off the street lamp. Then behind Jaune was the third member.

Wolfe got himself some fresh clothing for the task with cyan blue suit with body armor. His knees were protected Kevlar straps as well along with shin guards. He was still vulnerable in certain areas, but it functioned for the mission ahead. He secured the ammunition pack at his waist along with unslinging his H&amp;K G36 Carbine. Wolfe took a deep breath of the evening air. The white and red mask of a demon with its lips sewn shut. The upper half of the mask was pure white as from the bridge of the nose then downward it was crimson red.

"Let's get rich." Wolfe sneered as he strapped his mask on.

**Now it's a crossover. Initially the story was going to be pure Ruby characters but since Wolfe is my favorite class to play as in Payday, I thought why not add him to the story. So now we found out the plan of the paintings heist, what will happen? I know Jaune is a bit OOC but I hope people will still enjoy the story. As always thank you for reading and please review. Now it is time for my response to the reviews.**

**Special thanks to my editor 357.**

**Meime: **Thank you for the kind words. The plot is still getting started as more will play out in future chapters. I wish to know what the readers think of the story. To have more reviews would be awesome. Have an excellent day.

**Bluere:** I can't really say in what the Original Payday Gang will be doing as it would be spoilers for the story. So please don't hate me for that. With my brainstorm from last week, the thought grew on me to add Wolfe to the story, I hope you'll like him in this story. Thank you so much for reviewing and have a great day.


	7. Chapter 7, Paintings Heist

**Thank you for everyone supporting the story. The Payday Gang was ready to pull off another heist so let's see how it goes.**

The street was vacant and from the windows were several bots and human guards. Jaune tapped a button for the light posts to flicker and turn off for several moments for them to cross with darkness. By first glance, none of the guards noticed the light and by the time it returned the team made it across the lawn. From there Jaune looked at his partners, Neo nodded as Wolfe did a brief wave as he watched their flank. Here is where Neo will enter the building.

Alongside the main lobby was a restroom for the patrons but no door. But a chink in the armor was along the wall was window to air out the bathroom. Neo was boosted up by Jaune and Wolfe. She reached inside seeing no one and continued to squeeze her way through. The windows were a tight fit but Neo made her way through then gave the wall a single knock. The area inside was empty is on standby.

Wolfe then aimed his weapon up and with Jaune behind him; the two proceeded to walk around the building. On the far back, there is a ladder to directly get to the roof. Alone the walls were three cameras but their aimed at the fences ten yards away so being below them is a blind spot. After several seconds the two made it to the ladder. It was sealed with a padlock and Wolfe fiddled with the lock but before doing so, Jaune tapped his shoulder. He looked up as Jaune pointed to the corner, there was a beam of light approaching.

Seeing no more options, Jaune activated his ECM jammer then placed it along the ground to disrupt communication of the closest camera. The two quickly sprinted across the grass to bushes on the outline of the property. The two jumped and watched the guard walk on by. He checked the lock to the ladder and pulled out his pager. He spoke into it but didn't get an answer. Jaune was so focused on the guard he didn't notice that Wolfe wasn't beside him.

A figure approached the guard and with one smack of the stock of his gun, the guard was knocked out, Wolfe waved Jaune over. By the time he got back, Wolfe turned the jammer off.

"Hey, what's going on out there?" A voiced called from the guard's pager, Jaune and Wolfe's eyes widened.

"Come on, pick up the pager." The pager beckoned.

Wolfe looked at Jaune; Jaune looked at the pager then back to Wolfe. Wolfe shrugged as he didn't know what to do.

"Answer the pager; otherwise the gallery will go on lockdown." The pager gave an ultimatum. With a jolt of anxiety, Jaune grabbed the pager.

"It's all good her, I had to take a piss on a bush." Jaune came up on the spot. Wolfe stood there face palming his mask.

"God, these things suck on voices. Copy that, I told you to not drink that soda. Well, the ladder is all clear, proceed with your patrol." The pager responded. Jaune and Wolfe sighed.

Jaune looked down at the body of the guard. Wolfe shrugged again then the two grabbed the body. Jaune carried the torso, and Wolfe had the legs. Using the jammer again for a moment, the two placed the man in a dumpster. After that matter was taken care of, the two made their way to the ladder. Jaune pulled out bolt cutters then ripped the padlock off the ladder. It opened and the two made their way to the roof.

Jaune watched from above as several bots, guards and cameras shift around. Jaune nodded as it clear for the moment.

Wolfe pressed his finger against his ear. "We're in position." In response on the radio, there was a click of a gun. It was Neo saying she's ready. Jaune unlatched the top of the windows locks. Then above Jaune leaned in as the guards were still away, he then turned his body away from the opening. He guided his legs to fall in the opening so then Jaune used his upper body strength to dangle above the 14 foot drop. Jaune released his grip and Wolfe did the same. This section of the gallery had a complete blind spot to the cameras. The middle was divided by four large walls, to hold more art. Unfortunately, the room was positioned on the opposite side of the building and the security room.

"We're on the move." Jaune spoke softly.

Neo grinned as it was her time to move. From the ladies restroom, it stood on the opposite side of the front desk. There was one guard kicking back reading an X-Ray and Vav comic book. Neo effortlessly snuck to his side. By the time the guard noticed her presence, Neo decked the man.

Searching his security belt was a keycard. The security around here operated with the same keycard code. At the desk was a monitor that was linked to the outside cameras. The inside cameras belonged to the security room. With the key in hand, Neo walked to the entrance of where Jaune and Wolfe were located. The lobby split in two different directions since the gallery was one large circle. At the corner, Neo peeked from cover. A bot stood in the corner. There was no way for Neo to move on. Jaune's forehead of the mask was barely visible. Neo flicked the card along the ground and skid to Jaune's glove.

From now on, Jaune thought that using sweat resistant latex gloves will help keep their identities hidden. Wolfe hated the idea but he still wore the gloves. Jaune noticed the camera starting to shift in his direction.

"Move!" Jaune said leaning his head away from the corner.

Wolfe sat beside him. The two had the key so they made their way to the first section, and then there were trip laser wires. Jaune had three ECM Jammers and first one was almost out of battery. Jaune pressed the button again. Wolfe crossed the beams then Jaune followed. To their right was a guard stand there admiring a painting. Jaune and Wolfe had the chance to move as they were about to, camera shifted to their direction. Wolfe cursed silently. The guard was done watching as was about to turn around.

Jaune sprinted forward and tackled the guard. Before he could speak, Jaune punched the man two times to knock him out. But as he looked up a camera was staring right at him. Jaune sighed.

"Psst." Wolfe called.

Jaune looked at Wolfe, when he did, Wolfe pointed at the wall of the camera as an ECM jammer rolled over. Wolfe tossed a jammer when Jaune reacted. Heeding the warning, Jaune dragged the guard to a corner. It won't be long until someone discovers the unconscious body. The two crossed into the next section of the gallery. They were only one section away from the security room. Wolfe and Jaune spotted three droids in the room. Jaune and Wolfe hid behind a pillar. It would take twenty seconds again before the camera rotates to their location.

Jaune didn't know on what to do, Wolfe clicked the safety of his weapon.

Then in streak of light, a droid toppled over and the torso was separated from the legs. The an umbrella fell down to the helmet of the second droid then with two more strikes all their droids were destroyed.

Jaune and Wolfe used the last two jammers and positioned them to have the whole section seem like a black out.

"Hey what's going on? I got a blind spot and the control console says the droids are offline. Jaune readied his pager.

"Really? I'll check it out." He released the button. They were running out of time and Jaune and Wolfe walked into the other section and then Neo blazingly walked into the open. The boys realized then, Neo cut the feed of the cameras, and knocked out or dismantled the rest of the guards and droids. Jaune and Wolfe made their way to the security door. With a swipe, the door opened with a green light.

Wolfe was the first to enter. The guard there was a busy tinkering with the controls then felt a barrel to her back.

"Don't do anything stupid." Wolfe shoved the guard from the controls. The woman blinked and watched from the floor.

"Hey hey, don't look at them, look at me." Wolfe snarled.

"Oh shit! It's the Payday Gang. Please don't hurt me." She pleaded. She appeared to be a woman in her late teens to early twenties. She looked to have been scared. Her pupils widened as Wolfe's mask stared directly at her.

"Just sit down and be quiet." Wolfe barked as he turned the guard around then used zip ties to constrict her arms.

"The guards are down. What about the cameras?" Jaune asked as Wolfe typed away.

"I can erase the data, be all forms of digital media can barely exist. So with our masks, we'll be fine. I'll still compile all the data erased." Wolfe began to type away.

Neo, please keep an eye on the prisoner, I'll securing the paintings." Jaune set his thermal drill down. His back ached slightly, carrying the thing is awkward. Jaune walked down alongside the paintings. _The buyer wants four but what kind does he want?_

"The guy we're working for? What does he want?" Wolfe asked as he typed away.

"… I honestly have no idea… I forgot to ask." Jaune admitted.

"Just grab what you think we need, then." Wolfe said as he monitored the cameras.

Jaune found a painting of a huntsmen standing in a circle with Grimm approaching them. Jaune carefully tugged on the painting then everything lit up and a siren blared.

"You done goofed." Wolfe snickered.

"It wasn't my fault! How was I supposed to know that an alarm will sound? Neo, get ready to fight off the droids!" Jaune shouted. He broke the spine of the paintings to remove the paper and roll it up. Then bagged six of them. Jaune sprinted to the lobby. Then as he arrived, Neo was taking cover behind a piece of art. She looked outside and didn't know on what to do, because outside were several police vans parking outside.

"Aw darn." Jaune slouched then sprinted back to the security room.

Wolfe stood at there and looked over at the security woman. "Did you know about this?"

"No, I was meant to monitor the cameras but there was some new security added that is separated from the main security. Please don't hurt me." The woman lowered her head. Wolfe scoffed as Jaune entered the room.

"Stop traumatizing her and get ready to move." Jaune ordered as he rushed into the room. Wolfe nodded then turned to the woman.

"But I wasn't, ah just forget it…" Wolfe finished talking then Neo entered the security room as well.

She pointed toward the monitors as a legion of machines and police started to stack up outside. As they were distracted, Neo walked to the girl then smacked her over the head with her Umbrella.

"Hey hey, I thought we're decided for no brutality." Jaune turned to Neo.

She pointed at the eyes slits, and then did a wave over the room. She told Jaune that the guard would have seen everything.

"… You're right; we go to the backup plan." Jaune turned to Wolfe.

"Alright." The team carried two paints each. Wolfe activated the glass security as steel fences came down leaving easy access to the building problematic.

The team sprinted furthest wall on the opposite side of the building.

"Hey Richard, we got the goods, but it's time for plan B." Jaune asked as they reached the wall. "You said you packed explosives?"

"Yeah." Wolfe kneeled down then pulled his thermal drill out of his bag the placed it on the wall.

"That'll take too long-" Jaune was pushed back then Wolfe jumped forward as Neo took several steps back. The wall was blown open and left a cloud of dust.

"The drills are also bombs?" Jaune coughed.

"Yeah, what did you think it cost so much?" Wolfe chuckled.

"You got a twisted sense of humor." Jaune got to his feet. The team reacted fast enough before the building was isolated. They sprinted across the grass as a fence shattered in splinters as the van made an exit for the team. Neo made it first then ran then watched as the rest of the team entered. Jaune looked down and took a deep breath.

"I can't believe we made it." Jaune exhaled.

"Well we did. Richard, let's go." Jaune suggested and soon the van began to pull out before they were spotted by the police.

The van pulled out then sped off into the dark streets. Everyone remained silent until they could no longer hear the sirens. The team was almost there to the drop point.

"I was wondering why did you get a codename while we just have our names at risk?" Wolfe asked.

"What do you mean? I like the codename Crescent." Jaune smiled under his mask.

"Yeah that's cool, but Neo and Wolf are two simple names." Wolfe pointed out.

"That's true, but your names are so cool already, people will think your actual names are codenames. Neo thinks I'm right." Jaune pointed at Neo. She shook her head left and right.

"… I think it does." Jaune whispered.

"If you fuckfaces get codenames, I want one as well too. I never worked with an established group before. This is kind of exciting." Richard laughed. Wolfe looked in Richard's direction.

"Who asked you?"

"Whatever, I was thinking of the name 'Twitch' you know, I think it works for the jobs we're gonna do."

"Sure thing Twitch." Jaune spoke loudly. _Sure having a codename is cool but we need a driver more than anything. Make him feel attached, then he'll provide us with a great service._ Richard chuckled as the pulled up to the train yard. It was once the hub for when Vale tried to expand many years ago. The station served no purpose when it failed, now a ruin with no one wanting to do anything with the property.

"Please hurry this up alright?" Twitch spoke softly.

The team arrived at the designated location. The doors opened and Jaune was the first to exit since he wore the best armor. He wasn't shot or they're waiting for the rest of the crew to get out. Jaune took several steps and found out the location to meet was a derailed train car. Jaune walked inside and as he did, a scroll rang. The ID was labeled as Unknown.

Jaune pressed the button to answer the call.

"Glad to know you made it. So yeah, either you go all the way or not at all. Get all the paintings to the train car and place them on the table at the end." The call ended before Jaune could say anything.

He turned around, and waved at the van. Wolfe and Neo walked out, side by side. Wolfe passed the rest of the paintings as Neo stood outside and watched their surroundings. Her mask provided enough for her eye movements to be hidden.

As Jaune placed the last painting on the table, the scroll rung again.

"Two extra than agreed. We'll take it." The scroll call ended then footsteps thumped across the roof. Wolfe aimed his rifle at the ceiling. A hatch released and a figure stood above.

"Alright, just pass me the paintings and you'll get paid." The figure spoke affirmatively.

Jaune went along with it as he tossed the first painting and after he did a bag of cash dropped into his arms. This repeated for the rest of the paintings. With six bags of money, all were placed on the floor.

"The deal is final; I'll contact you again if I've got a job that needs to be done." Then as he finished talking Neo noticed something odd in the distance. She punched Wolfe and the two looked where she was staring. There was a glimmer. Narrowing her eyes, Neo spotted a droid taking position.

"Aw crap." Wolfe took aim.

"It looks like you were followed. This is where we part ways." The buyer then jumped off the train car and sprinted off into his escape. There wasn't any way for the gang to follow so they prepared for a fight.

"Twitch, the cops followed us, get ready to move!" Jaune shouted as he picked up a bag. Soon bullets erupted from the direction of the droids. Jaune was halted by the gun fire then took cover.

"We can't leave here! Let me drive to the other side and meet you there. This place is a fucking deathtrap!"

"Fine go!" Jaune ordered. _It turns out 'Twitch' is a fitting name after all._

"What are we gonna do boss? There's tons of them out there!" Wolfe took a peek from cover. "It looks like these droids are basic models, so whoever is attacking aren't police."

Jaune looked out and prepped his Knight's SR by checking the chamber. "We give them hell." Jaune ordered as he opened fire.

Wolfe smiled sadistically under his mask. The two began to open fire. Jaune fired in single shots and shot three droids. As that happened Neo was ready for real action as well. She blinked then kicked out a window then she jumped forward. He kept his head down as he pulled the bags of money closer.

Neo stood there as three droids with batons charged her. Neo lifted her Spas Umbrella to blast the armor away to the sparking inners of the first droid. Then Neo plunged the weapon into the machine's chest and lift it up. The second droid aimed for her kneecap. She flicked her leg up to flip the droid and when it landed she speared that on too. The third droid was shot apart by Wolfe's weapon. Jaune covered Neo as he fired his Knight's SR at the droids on the balconies and rooftops.

A brick wall blasted apart as a green bulky droid fired its AA-12 shotgun.

"Oh crap, Bulldozer!" Jaune shouted. He aimed for the head AKA central processor. Neo lowered her captured droids then loaded an explosive shell into her SPAS. With a single blast, the two droids were hurled at the Bulldozer. The dozer was crushed and blown up.

Wolfe smiled at the destruction but then he realized that two black squares were approaching the train car from the right side. "We got two Shield Wielders!"

"Neo, Wolfe, secure the money!" Jaune stood up and slung his weapon to his back and his sword shifted into full form, his shield as well.

"Roger Boss!" Wolfe moved an inch then a train door was pulled back. Neo stood there waiting for the money.

Jaune raised his shield to the bullets coming from the Shield droids. He plunged the sword into the black shield of the droid and destroyed the droid. Jaune realized these shield wielders were all show. Then he sliced the second droid in half.

"We got more company; Neo and I are in the warehouse!" Wolfe shouted into the comms.

"Jesus, you kids love to shout. Twitch here, I'm coming in across the street of the warehouse. I'll be here until you arrive, and hurry up. The police scanner is echoing like crazy."

Jaune ran toward the warehouse to see Wolfe inside and taking pop-shots as Neo was nowhere to be seen. Above them was a second floor railing with droids being blasted apart by Neo's Umbrella.

"She's got this, now move the bags." Jaune shouldered two bags as Wolfe carried two as well. Two more were left behind. They sprinted across the warehouse to find garage door but it was on lockdown.

"Give me thirty seconds, I can hack this." Wolfe put one money bag down and typed away at the locked. It was an automated system; a password is still inside, somewhere.

Jaune lifted his Knight's SR and blasted a head off a droid. He covered fire then in the corner of his eye; Jaune noticed two droids making off with their money. The door slammed open with a clean shot to the Van behind a chain-linked fence. Wolfe grabbed his bags and booked it.

"Neo, secure those bags." Jaune shouted again. Neo looked from her position to see the droids.

Wolfe made it across then his weapon shifted into gun form. Then without a hitch, the gate was wide enough for a person. Jaune guided a new magazine into his weapon and ducked down. They tossed their bags inside the van and turned around to see Neo gleefully holding her umbrella on her shoulder with the two bags at her feet.

"You're a life saver Neo." Jaune thought out loud. With the money in hand the piled in the van.

"Twitch, get us outta here!"

Twitch didn't say anything. The van zoomed off into the streams of lights of the city.

"Oh man, I can't believe we made it." Wolfe removed his mask to brush the sweat from his forehead.

"Indeed." Jaune panted. Neo twirled her umbrella. They drove for another fifteen minutes as the heisters bodies started to calm down from t excitement. Wolfe kept rubbing his face of sweat.

"We're here kiddies." The location was that of the outskirts of the city with two cars. Each of them walked out to stretch their backs. Jaune remained in the van.

"You guys kicked ass out there, any idea who the third party was?" Twitch asked.

"No idea, but I'm going to find out." Jaune tossed a wad of money at Twitch. He removed a rubber band and his eyes widened.

"Ugh, hey kid but, I agreed for 6,000 not 24,000." Twitch began to wonder if he was being played.

"You could have left us, but didn't. For that, I'm grateful." Jaune lifted his mask.

"Well thank you!" Twitch walked to his van. "If you guys need a driver, give me call. Oh, and kid."

"Yeah?"

"Do I get a mask?"

"Sure, why not." Jaune shrugged as he pulled out all the bags of money.

"Fuck yeah!" Twitch entered his van and drove off back into the city. Jaune pulled out more money and tossed it to Neo and Wolfe. Both of them were paid 35,000 lien. They stared at Jaune.

"Both of you did the jobs well. I couldn't have done this without you." The job had earned the team 240,000 lien in the money bags. The cost of paying for help was 94,000 lien, then an extra 60,000 lien in their weapons, gear, and Wolfe's suit. Leaving 86,000 for Jaune to work with, and 50,000 lien goes to Cinder. All that is left is 36,000 lien for Jaune.

"Wow, I really did get my own Payday." _All it took was risking my life and breaking the law._ Jaune chuckled to himself to see Wolfe and Neo standing there.

"Alright, Neo, you drive the first car. It contains the 50,000 I owe to Cinder. Wolfe you drive the second car as it contains the payments for our debts. Just deliver it to the hideout, I'll handle it from there. I'll contact Cinder to let her know you're on your way, okay Neo?"

Neo nodded as she entered her car. "Wolfe, I'll ride with you until we get to two. I'll take public transportation back to the school." Wolfe smiled as the two entered the car.

Wolfe just sat there. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing… it's just, you have no idea how much this will help me. Seriously Jaune, thank you." Wolfe made a fist. Jaune grinned as they fistbumped Wolfe started the car for the journey back to the city.

**Yay, if this was the game, this is when you hear the Clean Getaway song. Sorry this took a while, writer's block does that to people. Oh yeah, in case people were wondering about the first driver who died is random, he's not Twitch. Richard in this is real Twitch. For the first guy, I barrowed some dialogue. Thank you so much for reading as this story will continue. Please tell me what you think by reviewing and have an excellent day.**

**Pataponvideo: ** Thank you so much for reading. This crossover happened when I was bored and wrote it out. It's a fun idea and I hope you liked this chapter.

**AnAustralianGamer: **Thank you very much.

**Bluere:** That's a cool thought but no. This isn't that kind of crossover. I think the Payday Characters are cool and all, but this is still mostly RWBY. Thank you for reading

**RyderRosas:** Thank you for the compliment. The first guy was a random driver. I just barrowed some dialogue for the chapter. This guy Richard is the real Twitch. I just wanted to clear that up. I hope you liked the chapter.


	8. Chapter 8, The Next Step

**Sup everyone; I'm starting my college classes now, so the updates will get bumpy.**

The lights of the hall dimmed down based on the time of night. Jaune leaned back and he felt at ease as he entered his dormitory. In the lobby stood Cinder. This time, dressed in a raven colored button up shirt with a red undershirt, dark blue jeans, with black shoes.

"Congratulations Mr. Arc. I knew you were an excellent candidate." Cinder smirked.

"You got your share; I'll talk to you about the next job tomorrow. I just want to go to sleep." Jaune kept his duffle bag on his shoulder and used his free hand to rub his face.

"Still worried about my reputation?"

"I don't know if that's a trick question or not. But yes, I do. Did the source give up the information?" Jaune walked toward the steps and took a gander around the corners to see no one in sight.

"He was uncooperative at first, but we changed his mind. I just needed to check up on you. The job went splendidly from the gestures Neo told me." Cinder stated.

_Now it makes sense._ "You were the one responsible for what happened at the trade off in the train yard." Jaune turned around. "Next time, if you really want to get rid of me, be sure to send something worthwhile."

As Jaune finished that sentence, a red colored knife was centimeters from his throat. "Is that a challenge?"

"Partially." _Oh shit!_ Jaune looked in Cinder's eyes. "I'm still useful, so getting rid of me now will only raise questions with two very nosy teams. Your cover here is solid." Jaune leaned into the blade.

Cinder relented as she lowered her blade, she moved a fold on her collar and placed the blade back in its hiding place. "You need to stop testing your luck." Cinder left a small cut on Jaune's throat. He rubbed his neck to feel the blood. Cinder left the dorm and Jaune shrugged. He walked around the corner and had his right forearm be used as support for his body. He started to breathe and blink rapidly.

After several seconds, he calmed down the proceeded to walk to his dorm room. The halls were empty and arrived at his door. He pulled out his keys and right before he unlocked the door, it opened to show Ren standing at the door.

"Hey Ren, where are the girls?" Jaune looked over his shoulder.

"Nora and Pyrrha are out studying chemistry. I'm here to enjoy the silence. Ren rotated his body and took a step back for Jaune to walk in. Ren had his backpack on a desk with all of his textbooks looking like they're ready to pour out.

"Okay, I'm just really tired."

"That's understandable." Ren walked back to his bed to crack open a book. Jaune fell onto his bed then drifted off into sleep.

The next morning, Jaune opened his eyes to see the room in a dim blue light of the morning. His left arm felt a little light then wiggled it to get the blood flowing. He got the feeling back then glanced around the room.

"Morning Jaune." Pyrrha smiled as she finished getting dressed for her morning runs.

"Hey Pyrrha. Going for a run?"

"Yeah. I'll see you later."

Jaune looked back toward the notebook which held the information of the next assignment. It's amazing how much blackmail can drive a person. Jaune sat up and frowned to the floor. He looked at his scroll and opened the icon of text messages. He had one message in his inbox.

Hey boss, I see you at lunch today to discuss what's our next move? -W

Yeah, just don't make any serious expectations. There might be more to this than I'm comfortable with. –J

Got it. –W

Jaune closed the scroll and prepared for the day. Ren and Nora headed off to their first class together. Jaune remained in his room. He looked over the paperwork again. He nodded to himself and left the room. He walked the halls to see Pyrrha in the halls talking with other students, mostly girls so Jaune made sure not to draw attention to himself.

He heard the rumors; the whispers of students voicing their confusion in why would The Goddess of Victory associate herself with the failure of a Huntsman. Jaune mentally cursed himself on allowing nick names to get him, but he did acknowledge how he felt about himself. He kept his head away from Pyrrha's direction and walked through the halls. As soon as he turned to a corner, Jaune was surprised to see Emerald and Neo walking next to each other.

"Morning Mastermind." Emerald smiled. Neo nodded at the nickname.

"That's something I don't want to get used to. So are we meeting later today?"

"Yeah, we need to discuss on how we're planning to take down The Tasteful." Emerald spoke in a light tone, Neo remained alert about the possible eavesdroppers.

"So where you heading?"

"To my first class, now excuse me." Jaune circled around the girls and they continued to walk the halls. The students passed by, all talking and smiling.

Jaune entered his classroom and sat down. As soon as he did, he opened his textbook. He leaned on the table. It didn't take long for him to feel a ball of paper tap his back, and then crumble to the floor. It continued for several more throws, and he noticed a Ruby entering the classroom as well. He felt one more ball hit his back and his blood went to a low simmer.

"Okay everyone take your seats." Professor Port entered the class after a hearty laugh. It didn't take long before he drifted off topic. Jaune stared into his textbook reading over the chapter they were supposed to read over that day.

"Hello, is this seat taken?" A voice asked in a soft tone.

"Be my guess." Jaune didn't pay any attention to the student. He rotated his head right to see Cinder pulling the chair out. The body went to alert as his drowsy state disappeared. "What are you doing here!?" Jaune asked in frantic whisper.

"I'm here for class of course; I do have a cover to keep." Cinder smirked. She ignored the dress code again by wearing black denim pants instead of the school issued pants or shirt.

"So what is so important that we need to talk?"

"I hate being alone for the one nervous idiot to make a move to sit next to me. You're smart enough to listen and spineless as well. I don't have to worry." Cinder opened her notebook and took a pen out of her jacket pocket.

Making a scene could ruin his cover in working for her, Jaune hated to admit it but he was beaten in this battle. _Stupid Cinder, messing with my life._ Jaune grinded his teeth and made sure to pay attention to Port. After thirty seconds, he was already bored of the lecture of how to kill an Ursa in one blow. _Big freaking whoop_.

"Aren't you tired of this?" Cinder asked as she wrote several sentences in her notebook.

"Very, I think for this class, I don't think it'll make a difference in my studies. Though I do want to get the attendance. So you're bored again and no one else to mess with?" Jaune started to write several notes down.

"Mostly, people are such a pain. They need to be around others to live, but those who want to think are isolated and shunned."

"Maybe it's just you disenfranchised with people? I don't get along with them but I can't change who they are." As Jaune said that a paper ball tapped his back. Cinder raised her left eyebrow slightly. Jaune turned his head to his textbook. "It's just people." Jaune continued to write.

"Right, the world is a dull place." Cinder used her hand to support her head from the table. The classroom was out of the lecture, half of them were asleep.

"For you, I want to see the Faunus Cities of Vacuo, the Metropolises of Atlas, and the nomadic tribes."

"Dreams are pointless." Cinder rolled her eyes.

"Dreams give us motivation, giving up is the same as refusing to breath. If life is so pointless, what are we striving for in the world and to live in it? It's what gives us aspirations and individuality." Jaune continued to write.

Cinder lifted her head slightly. "It's also those same dreams for us to feel crushed when we can't grasp it. It teaches us to know the significance of our lives. Scientists love to research but are used for the military, the education systems break the idea of individuality for the mundane existence." Cinder rested her chin on her palm.

"True, but what we make of it is how we live, grow, and enjoy life itself." Jaune finished writing his notes.

"Misery teaches us." Cinder stated.

"And hope guides us." Jaune yawned after his retort.

Cinder sighed then glanced at the clock. "We leave class in five minutes."

"Yep." Jaune looked over toward the clock to double check. "I talked to Emerald and Neo this morning. Are we meeting at your dorm?"

"Indeed." Cinder answered. The two turned to their notebooks and didn't speak to each other. Time went at its daily snail's pace until the bell finally rang.

_Oh thank dust_. Jaune smiled as he packed his belongings. Cinder was already on her feet and out the door. Jaune scoffed at Cinder when she left the room. Looking up, he noticed Dove watching from afar with a devious smile. Jaune shrugged the idea off and left the room to get to Oobleck's classroom. Jaune walked in and noticed Wolfe sitting in the back rubbing his eyes. He walked in his direction and he stood next to his desk.

"Rough morning?" Jaune asked as he sat down.

"Like you wouldn't believe, I slept in and I missed my first class." Wolfe yawned.

"I'll help you out here, sound good?" Jaune walked around Wolfe and sat down.

"I didn't answer 'yes' so why not?" Wolfe chuckled to himself.

The two made a couple of jokes and spent the class helping each other in the notes. Oobleck yammered on and on about Grimm and their effect to the world. It made the whole ordeal go much smoother.

The classes went well as it was time for lunch and Jaune stood outside the Cafeteria and waited outside of the doors. He already conjured an excuse to not be at the table that day. Mercury showed up to walk with him to go to the transfer dormitory. They walked in silence.

Upon entering the dorm, Cinder, Neo and Emerald were all sitting down. Neo was happily eating an ice cream Sunday. She looked up and nodded at Jaune. She did a gentle wave and pointed at the ice cream. It was her way of saying she spent a little of her pay for the treat.

"So the mission to the gallery was a success, now we get to deal with Junior." Emerald smiled as she began to fiddle with her revolvers. Spinning them around and holstered them.

"Right, so what's the plan?" Jaune walked to a table to see the schematics and paperwork of objects to do the next job. What confused Jaune was because around this time of night, a place like this would normally be crowded.

"Uh, why are we going at that time?" Jaune asked dumbfounded.

"We need hostages in case everything goes south. A backup plan for the backup plan." Mercury interjected.

Emerald walked forward. "The gang is pretty paranoid at the moment. We need to make a move soon for future operations."

"We got the manpower so this'll be cake." Mercury added.

"Can all of you talk to each other telepathically, the way how all of you played off each other is pretty cool." Jaune chuckled.

Everyone just stared at him.

"Right… Are you coming with us Cinder?"

"Yes, I'll provide over watch as Mercury, Emerald, and you do our business inside." Cinder leaned forward. "We don't need to destroy the club itself, but what it's housing. It could be money, drugs, or weapons, I honestly don't care. Just so the group is crippled by the end." Cinder rested her chin on her hands.

"The nightclub is pretty large, there's no way we can lock it down out being compromised in seconds." Jaune pointed out the major flaw. "Also, why isn't Neo helping in this endeavor"

"She has her own assignment for the next week or so. So what are you suggesting?" Emerald answered.

"I have a guy who works for me and he can cover the missing spot on this job. He can help and is a pretty helpful technician." Jaune lowered his shoulders. "I know you have trust issues, but he's my responsibility. I promise, this job will succeed." Jaune knew this deal was way too sweet.

"Fine, I'll allow it." Cinder replied. There was not a hint of hesitation.

"Oh yeah, bring this to the library tonight, I'll make my own edits to the plan and we can decide as a group on the final version of the plan, does that work for all of you?" Jaune looked to his left and right. Mercury nodded as Emerald just looked at Cinder, Neo didn't give a crap as she ate another spoonful of ice cream.

"Be at the library at nine in the evening, I'll bring it." Cinder didn't stop watching Jaune's reaction. Jaune is working for her and unlike admiring bystanders, Jaune's could be a threat one day.

"That is all. You're dismissed."

"Thanks, Cloud, Wild West, Ms. Ice Cream, and Lady Cinder. Good day." Jaune turned around to leave the room. Neo waved using her spoon. Mercury walked to his bed and pulled out a comic book of a team called 'Pyro Lights' to read. Cinder leaned back and opened a book to read.

"Aw come on, I'm the only one bored here." Emerald crossed her arms.

Down the hall, Jaune pulled out his scroll.

"Hey uh Wolfe. We need to talk. Right now." Jaune closed his scroll. The walk to the field was a short. Wolfe sat under the tree and Jaune walked beneath it as well.

"Hey man, do you want another job?" Jaune sat down.

"What do we hit next?" Wolfe rubbed his chin in thought.

"A Nightclub, you interested?"

"Fuck yeah!" Wolfe stood up and fist pumped the air. Jaune became relieved by Wolfe's excitement. The surrounding students didn't have a care in the world, Jaune was about to be sent on another task for the criminal underworld. _This world is like quicksand. If you're careless, you fall in. You have a lifeline but for so long, you'll just be swallowed whole by the sand._ Jaune looked up to see team CRDN but without their leader.

"Hey guys, is the under the tree song too easy here?" Dove looked to his teammates, Russel Thrush, Sky Lark, and the one who just talked was Dove Bronzewing.

"What the hell do you guys want?" Wolfe's smile turned to a frown.

"To make Jaune pay for what he did to Cardin, he got kicked out but his repeal was stated to come back. That fucker there," Sky Lark pointed at Jaune, "has to pay for his crimes. It'll be in your best interest to stay out of our way."

Jaune stood up and dust himself off of dirt. "Alright, give it a go."

When Jaune finished that sentence, Russel charged at Jaune with a right haymaker to his cheek. Jaune raised his left hand and caught the fist mid-flight. In the attacker's confusion, Jaune loosened his gripe and took hold the Russel's right wrist. In that moment, Jaune pulled Russel forward and aimed for the stomach and reeling his arm back, Jaune aimed his forward to ram into Russel's left cheek. With him beaten, Jaune positioned his right leg behind Russel's left leg. He pushed him forward and he toppled backwards into the grass.

Sky Lark sprinted forward and tried to tackle Jaune. In preparation, Jaune bent his legs to absorb the impact of the charge and he raised his hands to Sky Lark's back, Jaune pressed down and lifted his left knee to his stomach. Sky Lark coughed and as he tried to continue, Jaune raised both of his elbows and brought them down like a hammer to nail Sky Lark to the ground.

Dove just stood there watching. "I don't have time to worry about anyof your bullshit. If you keep coming for me, this will get progressively worse. So with that in mind, get out of my sight." Jaune didn't realize the cold stare he did toward all of them. Dove didn't say anything but lifted his comrades to their feet.

By the time Jaune calmed down, he realized that how could those guys go down that easily? Because, his fists aren't that strong.

"Dude, that was sick." Wolfe walked to Jaune with his left hand into a palm. "Come on, don't leave me hanging." Jaune scoffed as he high fived Wolfe.

"We need to work on the plan tonight, meet me in the library, tonight at nine thirty." Jaune stated.

"I'll be there boss." Wolfe nodded as he looked in the direction of the students. Half of them were like Meer kats and just wanted to watch a fight happen and do nothing to stop it. _Typical._ Jaune thought.

**Hello everyone. The next heist will happen in the next chapter, it's pretty exciting. Oh yeah, I had Jaune beat up Team CRDL… I have no regrets. I mean come on, we all secretly wanted to see Nora break their legs. Eh, just some mental payback for the crap in the first volume. Like always, you guys are awesome and tell me what you think. It is now Response Corner time. (Bright Lights flick on.)**

**Pataponvideo: **A Titanfall and Infinite Stratos, seems possible and cool. Being crazy can make life interesting. Have a great day.

**RyderRosas: **Of course, I respond to all reviews as the reviewer could be asking a question another reader has. I can see what you mean with the writing, it's a habit I'm progressively breaking. I'll get there with plenty of practice. Always a pleasure to speak with fellow fans of anything. Have an excellent day.

**CrimsonHersey: **In my mind, I can't see Jaune doing any of this without being blackmailed into it. I thought the idea sounds cool and I'm rolling with it. Thank you immensely for reading.

**Gamerandartist35:** I'll respond to both reviews. I take a little time in overanalyzing the relationship of Cinder and Jaune. Just that to two never interacted with each other. I think it'll provide a decently interesting contrast between the two. Oh, yeah Adam. I did for the fun of a what if fight, I had a lot of fun writing it. I hope this chapter shows the progression of change in Jaune's life in the story. Thank you for reading, have a kickass day.


	9. Chapter 9, The Tasteful Nightclub

**Hello there everyone; I hope you're in the mode for a heist. The Nightclub is here. The song for this one is "**Black Nail.**" From the Parasyte anime soundtrack, I wanted one that already sounds similar to Payday.**

**The Link**: watch?v=cjrJxiZksgw

The chilly air tonight was going to be a thunderous one. Like always, the forecast for the weather was off for 5% of rain and it was pouring like no tomorrow. The thought actually kind of excited the Payday Gang as they strapped on some of their equipment. Jaune looked up to the crew; Wolfe kept his eyes to the ground as he strapped his kevlar vest. The amount was about double the size and he tightened his knee guards.

Emerald wised up and wore the same suit from the weapon heist. The suit was slightly looser than everyone else because of the equipment under her clothing. Her revolvers sat in comfort in her holsters and she looked around the van. She kept body armor on her left arm while the right was unprotected. The weapon Jaune prepared for her was the

"Hey Jaune, what's the expected response time?"

"Tonight, Wolfe and I expect them to show up in 90 seconds. As for the Droids, we should see them in five minutes. In what we're clearing out, that depends. Remember no killing hostages; keep the Nightclub on lock down." Jaune needlessly ejected his Knight's SR magazine to see if it was live ammunition.

"So whatever we claim, do we get a share of the profits?" Mercury adjusted his collar. The suit her wore was on with extra room around the joints of his arms and legs, so he can maneuver better in the field. With his current weapons being his shotgun boots, with kevlar plates on his legs but were separated at the joints. His upper body had his dress suit hide his body armor.

"Well, we're a team; we need to pull off the job before we think about the rewards." Jaune carefully placed his armor and with his metal bracer on his left arm to house his shield.

"Hey there kiddies, we're one minute out before we reach the club." Twitch called out from the driver seat.

"By the way, do we get codenames?" Mercury strapped his back with a bag of ammunition. With a dozen clips of ammunition and could murder anyone's back.

"That's not up to me." Jaune shrugged.

"Cool, I want to be called 'Owl.'" Emerald smiled.

"Ooohhh, nice one." Wolfe smiled.

"And I'll be called 'Hermes.'" Mercury nodded.

"Crescent, Wolfe, Owl, and Hermes. No wonder everyone thinks the Payday gang is so damn cryptic." Twitch smart mouthed. The van pulled up to at a corner which was about one city block away from the entrance of the Nightclub.

Mercury was the first on to exit the van and was followed by Jaune. By first glance, the two didn't seem to be heavily armed or ready to wage a war. The two walked around the corner. They walked for three seconds.

"Hold up." Jaune said as he spotted something. Mercury stopped in his tracks.

"What's up?"

"That motorcycle of there, it looks familiar." Jaune narrowed his eyes to see an orange bike parked right outside the Nightclub. "I know that bike; it belongs to Yang Xiao Long. She'll derail this whole job." Jaune felt like cursing up a storm.

"What's the problem down there?" Cinder's voice came into the radio communication.

"A new variable to the job, this wasn't expected and we'll have to abort it." Jaune kept his eyes looking down the street.

"Then find a way to get rid of it." Cinder retorted.

"Damn." Jaune looked to the sky. _Why did it have to be tonight?_ He looked back toward the street. Before he could say anything, the front doors burst open revealing the blonde fighter along with Neptune right behind her. Yang appeared to be on the phone and she looked to be concerned about something. Jaune crouched down to fake tying his shoes. Mercury caught on to the ruse and acted as his eyes.

Then down the street a giant grey battle mech zoomed past the block. Yang and Neptune looked at each other and the bike revved on. In 3 seconds, Yang turned her bike around and drove off into the direction of the highway. Jaune stood up and looked at Mercury.

Mercury looked back at Jaune. "Well that was easy." Jaune and Mercury walked to the front door.

"Sorry boys, tonight's full." The bouncer kept his arms crossed as the line whined about the two cutting the line.

"We're here to see Junior." Jaune stated.

"Funny, I wasn't told he wasn't getting any guests tonight." The bouncer raised an eyebrow.

"We this is a business transaction that isn't the kind to be kept on hold." Mercury answered.

"I'm not buying it."

Mercury turned to the crowd and the closest patrons in line were given a death glare. Every one of them backed down and looked away. With that, Jaune pulled out 5,000 lien from his pocket. The bouncer's expression changed and looked around. He took hold of the money and pocketed it.

"Aw what the hell, you guys seem like class acts." The bouncer stepped aside. Mercury smiled and Jaune nodded to the bouncer. Both of them had satchels on their hips to hide their masks before the heist actually started.

"We're in." Jaune spoke into a mic that was hidden in his wrist of the suit.

"Roger that." Wolfe lifted a heavy bag over his shoulder and exited the van. He was at the back of the club with two bags of equipment and Emerald carried one bag as well. She made her way to the roof of the building.

Jaune walked past the bar, he kept an eye out for the guards in black suits and red ties, Junior's henchmen. It would be several seconds before they did the second part of their plan. Wolfe checked his corners to see no one at the loading dock yet.

"I'm on the roof now." Emerald informed the team.

"Roger, I'm at the power box now." Wolfe said after Emerald. Jaune and Mercury prepared to make their move.

"In 3…2...1" Wolfe counted down. The music of the Nightclub continued to blare on but the building itself was pitch black. The lights flicked on as Jaune and Mercury looked casual as several guards appeared to be sleeping on the job. The people were so caught up the moment, no one took notice. Then the lights went out and there was a cheer.

The lights returned and anther portion of the guards were down. Jaune stood close to the bar and rubbed his chin. "I'll have a strawberry sunrise." He looked around and nodded to Mercury. Above them was the skylight and Emerald waited for part of the plan. She linked an electronic jammer to the system so it was playing a still image of the nightclub; an invention of Wolfe did on the side. Jaune took a swig of his drink. Non-alcoholic as it was blended soda with cherry with a strawberry kick.

The lights went out for the final time and this time it was the longest and then two masked men were on opposite ends of the dance floor. During the time of the black out, Emerald opened the window as the security was down and lowered a bag to Mercury and the two quickly changed into their masks with their weapons. The Knight's SR was pointed to the roof.

The bullets flew and the time whole place just stared. Before anyone could leave, the windows locked down and at the front door Emerald with her mask on, scared the people away. The loading dock door was lock picked for Wolfe to get in and rallied the staff in the back. During that whole time, the Nightclub was on taken over in forty five seconds.

**From here, I'm going to refer to their codenames. Also, start the song here.**

Crescent looked up and around the crowd. With a tug at his arms, he people were herded to the dance floor.

"There's bullet with your name on it the moment I see a phone!" Hermes shouted as he watched from a table and everyone kept their head downs. Crescent reached into his back pocket and immediately started to zip tie the hostages. He carried a bag of twenty and secured them all. The ones they didn't have ties for, Hermes singled them out and started to herd them.

From the entrance, Owl watched for any unexpected visitors. Crescent stood up and looked around.

"I got the people in the back secure and the metal doors are sealed." Wolfe grunted as he turned his blow torch off. He melted the metal and doors would need explosives to get through. The people were chattering to themselves and several were so afraid to do anything. Hermes looked up.

"We got this." As soon as Hermes said that, the office overlooking the nightclub burst open. Two girls, one dressed in white and another in red. They were the lead enforcers under Junior's payroll. The Malachite twins, Melanie and Miltiades. Both ready for a fight. Melanie had her bladed heels and Miltiades had her claw gauntlets. Crescent looked up to see the two with blank expressions.

"These guys are the Payday gang, aren't they?" Melanie asked.

"Indeed, they need to be put out of their misery." Miltiades nodded. With that the twins charged the closest target as it was Hermes. The girls sprinted in parallel to Hermes with Melanie raising her arms with a clear swipe upward then brought the claws down, Hermes leaned back to avoid the claws but the boots of Miltiades swiped his vision for it clash with Crescent's sword. Both sides were pretty close with one another and Crescent started to shift his sword downward to danger Melanie. Miltiades reacted by lifting her knee the almost gutted Crescent. It forced both sides to back off.

Before Owl could react to help them, many of the hostages saw this as their chance and many of them that weren't zip tied were standing up and sprinting to the exit. There wasn't any time for that, so Owl decided to shove her way through the crowd to help the others. Five more henchmen of the club showed up. Two armed with crimson machetes, one with a hatchet, and the other two guns.

The first with a gun aimed directly at the four fighting on the dance floor. Before he could pull the trigger. He felt an object tug at his stomach as it was Owl's revolver blade pulling him from his allies. As they sprinted toward her, Wolfe stuck his head out of the bar and fired several shots to surprise the men, giving Owl the chance to counter attack. She sprinted forward and used her momentum to jump and slide across the ground and swiped at two sets of feet to the ground then pounced on them for the knockout punches. The other two henchmen had their attention aimed specifically at Wolfe. He fired his weapon several more times and he jumped over the bar. That gave the second gun wielder the chance to fire back, shattering the glass drinks and cabinets. The shards sparkled in the changing lights. Wolfe looked up fired three rounds and one nabbed the gun wielder in the left shoulder, which caused him to fall backward to the ground.

"Yeah." Wolfe whispered to himself. Only for a machete wield to show up and bring the bald down to Wolfe's head. He reacted by raising his G36 up to clash metal with the blade. The amount of force had the blade and weapon shake in the confrontation. Having no other options, Wolfe relented in his strength slightly for the blade to ease down into the forehead of his mask. Then before the final blow was done, Wolfe made a fist with his right hand a punched the forearm of his attack knocking the machete from his mask as well as the thug holding onto his arm for the pain. Wolfe leaned up and returned to his feet before the thug could recover.

Back on his feet, Wolfe ejected his weapon's loaded magazine and gestured the thug to charge him. He took the bait and then Wolfe smiled under his mask and tossed the magazine across to the thug's nose. The clip bounced off leaving the thug clutching his face, giving Wolfe the chance to close line the thug with his right arm which forced the thug to fall on his back. He moaned in pain. Wolfe raised his right leg and stomped the thug in the stomach. The thug leaned up in pain and Wolfe lifted his foot lightly and kicked the thug in the face. Wolfe turned around and adjusted his tie. "Stay the FUCK down!"

Melanie had her heel blades tap Crescent's shield and then when he was still pulling his shield away, she lifted her left leg for a neck slice. As it was raised, a bullet knocked her heel blade down and she looked at the source. Wolfe lowered his rifle and sprinted toward the kitchen, according to the schematics of the building, there's an entrance to the office that requires a key card. Melanie returned to the fight as Hermes reversed jump kicked Miltiades with a blast of his boot.

"We're not done yet!" The girls shouted in unison. Both of them jumped backward. Melanie lifted her right leg and Miltiades took hold of the heel blade and her sister took her left claw bracer. The two had each other's weapon on the opposite hand and leg. Both smiled at the upcoming battle.

"The call had been made for the cops, you got 90 seconds." Cinder informed the crew through the comms.

Hermes and Crescent still stood side by side. "Roger that, Owl you go help out Wolfe and the two of you keep the droids at bay. Hermes and I will take care of the twins." Crescent looked straight ahead.

"So, got a plan?" Hermes chuckled.

"Can't think of one." Crescent shrugged.

"I guess we'll have to make one up as we go along." When Hermes said that, the twins sprinted toward them. Melanie made a jab for the body of Hermes so he dodged and the heel boot came up and struck the armor on his left thigh. It was directly on the armor so it grazed him but he became aware of about the potential slip ups. Crescent didn't raise his shield fast enough before Miltiades had her claw scratch his mask at the bridge of the nose.

Crescent raised his sword for a horizontal slash as he aimed at one of them, the second one lifted their gauntlet for it to stab Crescent's left forearm. He felt the tug of his suit but didn't allow the pain to be felt yet. He forced his way forward with his shield at the lower portion of his chest as he watched intensely from his eye slits and bashed Miltiades out of his path then speared his sword forward to become wedged in the corset of Melanie and raised her to the ceiling so her clothing slid her body down the base of the sword. She looked into the mask. "Stay out of our way." Crescent slurred under his mask, before anything else happened he pulled his sword out and as she stood there stunned, he walked away from her. She looked at her sister's direction to see Hermes lifting her up with his right leg at the end of his ankle and tossed Miltiades was blasted toward her sister. The two remained down on the ground unconscious.

"What we got?" Crescent and Hermes walked away.

"A stubborn door but luckily your fight was what killed the time, it's opens in 20 seconds. Neo has is out on the second floor balcony keeping an eye out for the cops. We got 30 seconds before they show up." Wolfe looked through the freezer door window for the 9 hostages he collected were huddled together in a corner.

"Great."

The hostages kept their head down fearing the possible repercussions. Crescent looked up and sprinted toward the dance floor and the music changed into a thunderous tone. He looked around and smiled.

"Here they come." Cinder informed the crew.

The skylight shattered apart with a legion of droids making their repelling in with rope. Crescent fired several rounds to put the first set of droids down before they could attack. From the roof, three appeared and started to fire at Crescent, he ducked down behind the DJ's booth. The AK-130s were the basic model for the country's public; they aren't the smartest but so that made everything easier. The gray machines were knocked out of commission after several pop shots.

"Hold, alright everyone, it looks like the police stepped up their efforts, because I see some new machines that don't look like AK-130s.

"What do you mean?" From the entrance four new droids blasted the doors open and were a white plates, gray frames, and large black visors on the helmets. The police asked for weapons level machines to fight the Payday Gang tonight.

"What the hell are those?" Crescent shouted.

"The Atlesian Knight 200s, the military of Atlas just finished developing them. Thicker armor, better targeting, and ultimate wrecker's of our shit." Wolfe took just finished off three of them from the loading docks. "Just be glad we're not fighting Paladins, they make Bulldozers look like pushovers." Wolfe chuckled at the end.

The door was finally done being drilled open and Wolfe was backed up by Owl. He kept at the corner and peaked at the edge and kept his weapon leveled to cover her entrance.

"Go go go." Owl signaled for her back to be covered by Wolfe. The two made it up the steps to see the manager that night sitting down on the couch. He looked up and smiled.

"I already opened the safe for the money tonight, now if you don't mind, I was apparently too drunk to do anything." The manager's head tilted back and passed out and dropped his bottle.

"We're in, apparently there's a small safe full of cash." Owl said into the comms.

"There's more to it than that, search the room for anything in particular." Cinder ordered as she watched the Atlesian Knights begin to mobilize.

"Shit shit shit!" Hermes shouted as sprinted from the front desk as that part of the club was overrun. He ducked down behind a table the pushed it over and crawled from his position. "I could use a little help here!"

Crescent looked crouched down from the short staircase of four steps to the dance floor, he rested his weapon and took aim. Reaching for his body armor, Jaune tugged on a small object. So after a moment, he pulled a ring from the ball and flung it at the desk since no hostage was in that area. After four seconds, a shockwave toppled three of the new droid over giving Hermes the chance to move.

Crescent continued to fire. "Owl, get out her and help us!" He said as he loaded a new clip to his weapon.

"Roger that, you got this?" Owl took several steps to get back to the fray. Wolfe waved her off.

Crescent needed to move and as he got up an oddly colored droid was with the new squad. This one was a dark blue than the white and had several bits of armor on the torso and knees. He aimed and picked off the group but ran out of ammo in the clip as the blue one got close. It raised its left arm and out sparks a string and Crescent felt spasms all over his body.

_What the hell is this, a Taser!?_ Crescent turned to the machine as it kept focus on him and from the corner of his eye; a new squad entered the building. The Taser's visor reflected the green revolver's blade slide the helmet and roll around. Crescent lost his balance and shook his head. "Wow that was magical." He joked as he returned to the action; he felt the stiffness of his muscles but now's not the time.

The club was still blasting with the music and the hostages were isolated so it gave the droids to extract them. Hermes looked at the floor to see none of them. He smiled at the thought because he could become less careless now. He ducked in as a new squad repelled on the dance floor. He jumped in and stomach kicked a droid in half by his boot firing a round. The other four reacted accordingly. Hermes turned to the closest droid and raised his left leg to the ceiling then brought it down to smash the helmet of the droid. Around him, slashes of light sparked around and when realized what happened Owl was walking away firing her revolvers.

"How much longer! The club is no longer on lockdown!" Crescent shouted.

"I found a button in a shelf; I pressed it and found a new passageway underground. Come check it out." Wolfe responded.

"Fine, but for now, help Owl and Hermes while I check it out." Crescent ordered.

"Copy that." Wolfe pulled the chamber back on his rifle. "I was getting bored anyway."

Wolfe and Crescent walked past each other and the two nodded.

"You got this Owl?" Crescent asked before entering the passageway.

"This is cake." Owl tossed her revolver forward as the bladed end stabbed the shoulder of a droid and by the time she got to it she held onto her weapon and positioned her legs at the stomach section and pulled until she flipped backwards. The arm was severed and the visor had a new bullet hole. "Just, hurry up."

Crescent nodded and sprinted down the steps with losing his footing. The area was pitch black and was lucky to find a switch at the bottom of the stairs. The lights forced his eyes shut and by the time he opened it, he nearly dropped his weapon. Junior was a typical dick head but this, this is a new low. Crescent resisted the urge to lift his mask and just reminded himself of the task at hand.

**The song should end here.**

"What are you going to do to us?" A feminine voice beckoned. What Crescent found was three cages of young girls and Faunus folk as well. All in tattered clothing, starved, and were huddled together in fear. Crescent found a small piece of the hub of Human/Faunus trafficking. All the girls watched like Hawks in what would Crescent would do next.

He walked past their cages and remained focused at the task at hand. The hall was barren as there was a door at the end of the hall and he forced his way through, in there, he found a mountain of Lien in cash. Each were neatly packed and the only guard just fell backwards as he feared the Payday Gang from the news.

"What the hell is this!?" Crescent strangled the guard by the collar.

"Just a living, look man, I hate working here!" The guard coughed.

"Are there more girls!" Crescent shouted in his muffled mask. The voice shook the guard to the core.

"No, half of them just came in last night. They weren't documented yet so they're ghosts in the system. I know what happened here was inexcusable but please, let me help you in their freedom."

"You double cross me, and you'll be missing a limb." Crescent growled. The guard pulled his red tie away and exited the room.

"Crew, something just came up. Hermes, get down here and bring some explosives." Crescent said as his blood began to boil.

Hermes heard loud and clear so he put his bag of ammo on the ground. "Ammo over here!" He shouted for the other two. After 45 seconds, He was blown away by the sight. "What the actual fuck?" He noticed the guard in the room at the far end bagging some lien in eight bags. Hermes looked at Crescent. "Look Crescent, I know that's a lot of cash, but there's no way we can carry it all."

"Duly noted." Crescent pulled a hand grenade from Hermes grip and put in a pocket of his body armor. Hermes and Crescent placed small charges on a wall where both of them know it will lead outside to the street. The wall was blasted open and Crescent walked to the cages. Some of the girls whimpered at the sight of Crescent placing small objects on the locks. After 10 seconds the locks were blown away.

"All of you are no longer bound to this place. Now that hole will lead you outside, seek refuge with the police while others will do what they see fit." Crescent spoke clearly.

A Faunus girl walked from the crowd. She appeared to be to be a mouse because of the whiskers from under her nose. "Why should we trust you?"

"You'll have to; otherwise, the forces that brought you here won't let you go." As Crescent finished his ultimatum the guard walked to Crescent. He had three bags of money and placed them on the ground.

"To the ones who are good at hiding and won't visit the police, these bags are for all of you to deal with the coming future. All of you will be dividing amongst yourselves. Now you have a minute before the police raids this place." Crescent stood tall.

The mouse girl turned to the others and nodded. All of them calmly left their cages. A young girl, just by looking at her was the age of 13 and when she passed Crescent she hugged him from his waist. Her eyes reddened and her emotional toll was released the same time as her torment was finally over. Another girl took her and led her to the exit.

The mouse girl walked the guard who stared at the ground. She lifted his head and by the widening of his eyes, the girl gave him a kiss. "When this is over, look me up in Signal." The girl winked at the guard.

"But I-" The girl punched the guard in the stomach.

"Don't ruin the moment." She turned to Crescent and Hermes. "I'll make sure the cops don't confiscate the money." With that the girl turned around and led the girls to their freedom.

"You better leave as well." Crescent turned to the guard. "They need a guide through the city." The guard nodded then pulled out his tie, hat and then stomped on it. With a stern expression, he walked outside with the girls.

"We better move." Hermes gestured to the staircase. Crescent kept quiet and walked to the room that contained the money. He took hold of his grenade, a special red dust mixture for an incendiary grenade. He pulled the pin and tossed into the mountain of money.

"Let's go." Crescent finally spoke. The mountain caught fire and the smell seared itself into Crescent's mind.

Above ground, Wolfe and Owl were able to push the cops back to the point they had to regroup and they were on taking cover behind the bar.

"Crew, we're done here. Time to bug out." Hermes said.

"Best thing I heard all night." Wolfe said as he and Owl got out of cover. So then Owl pressed a button and a cloud of smoke busted open for a rectangular box to send a ladder from the skylight to the middle of the dance floor. Hermes and Crescent had five bags and shared the load with Owl and Wolfe. It was a special ladder that reeled itself up and then the group made it the roof. Hermes had the job to pull the ladder back as several sniper droids fired at them. Wolfe took care of them with a bout of skill.

The ladder secured as well as the loot and the crew. A power cable was revealed to not be a power cable but a zip line across the street to another rooftop. All were blasted and were reeled to the other side before the cops could react. Each of them landed and walked across the rooftop. Cinder was at the end of zip line and set it ablaze. The crew left no trace of them being there.

"This is Bile your pilot." An airship called in from the distance and after twenty seconds, the crew walked onto the aircraft. Crescent removed his mask and watched as the Nightclub faded from his view. Jaune felt him to finally calm down.

**A simple heist that became something more. It was tense and a nightclub must be a difficult place to fight it. Oh yeah, I thought it would have been too wordy to explain the guard from the cages. He was a teenager blackmailed into serving Junior, (The Owner of the Nightclub.) to be a night watchmen. He made sure to give the girls extra food and make the situation a bit more tolerable. The mouse girl is the one that convinced him to help. Did you like the song, chapter, and characters? Thank you for reading and have an awesome day. Now for the response corner.**

**Gamerandartist35: **The Adam fight was one I had planned out from the beginning, it was a ton of fun to write. Yeah, that kind of encounter is for someone else to write. Not that I don't like it but would make the situation pretty complicated and I don't want that to happen yet. Yeah, Jaune and Adam will have their rematch, it'll be coming eventually. Thank you for reading.

**RyderRosas: **Thank you and sorry, I assumed everyone knew Monty Oum. He was the creator of the RWBY web series so sorry if that confused you.

**Commandosquierrel: **Yeah the leg breaking thing was something I hoped for. Yeah, maybe as a spin-off of this story. But JNPR will play a bigger role into the story at the right time. Thank you so much for reading. Have an excellent day.

**This next note was the one I wrote before updating the story; this was my reaction to the passing of Monty Oum. (An earlier post on Feb **

**With a heavy heart, I am deeply saddened to learn that the talented and creative Mastermind. (Pun Fully intended.) I never had the chance to know the man but I did watch a lot of videos involving him. He seemed to be a formal, down to earth, and great person. The only way I know how I could honor him is the support RWBY and remember the joy he brought to me with the series. I just hope that Rooster Teeth will continue Monty's legacy as he basically poured his heart into his work. Thank you Monty, fdor the joy, the love, and your overall personality to be shared with the world. From me to you Monty.**

**You will be strongly missed.**


	10. Chapter 10, The Four Stores

**Sup everyone. Sorry, I needed a break. My DLC for my copy of Payday wasn't working and my player rank was reset to zero and that had me pretty mad for a while. It affected my mood toward writing this as well. But I got over it and now let's continue.**

"Were there any complications during the job?" Cinder looked at each of the crew.

"Nothing to worry about." Emerald answered for the team.

Wolfe was pretty happy on getting the job done. He looked at Jaune. His expression was blank and seemed to have been unhappy with himself. There was more to this job than what was expected. It was quite obvious by his body language.

The flight over the city was brief; everyone was alert and reeling in from the past firefight. Wolfe took out his candy bar to eat but it was melted by his body heat, so he put it back in his pocket. The Payday Gang did another heist but the new mechanized droids showed that they overstayed their welcome.

"There are only a few more jobs after this right?" Jaune wiped the sweat from his brow.

"It will depend on how everything will play out. It will be impossible for Junior to recover from this and his control over the city. Just one of those girls could shake the foundation of his network." Cinder smiled sadistically. Jaune removed his mask completely and set it beside his an empty duffle bag.

The amount stolen of the six bags was about 60,000 a piece. Meaning 360,000 lien in total. During the flight, Jaune took one of each bag and passed it around. Emerald, Mercury, and Wolfe looked up.

"Great work tonight. This is your payment."

Wolfe opened his bag and inside the bright purple bills beamed off his eyes. He zipped the bag closed and smiled. So did Mercury and Emerald. Each of them took a moment to savor the reward. Jaune took out a bundle of money and walked to the cockpit of the airship.

"Here's your payment Bile." Jaune had the money tap Bile's shoulder. "Listen, thanks."

"Save it, you need a pilot, just contact me. Other than that, I don't want to know anything more. Got it?" Bile gave his specific conditions.

"Yeah." Jaune turned from the cockpit and sat down. The remaining three bags were still isolated. Jaune kneeled down and took out some lien and put it in one bag. He set two bags for himself. The last one he took money from was in his hands and walked to Cinder. Emerald noticed Jaune walk up to Cinder, she elbowed Mercury to watch as well.

"Here." Jaune passed the bag to Cinder.

"Oh? What is the reason for that I receive a lesser amount and you get a second bag?" Cinder kept calm but she was a force to be reckoned with. She could kill Jaune effortlessly if she really wanted to. Like the time she had the knife to his throat.

"To cover the expenses for better equipment. The cops stepped up their efforts, so we have to as well. Unlike you, I don't just use people. I plan to keep everyone involved alive." Jaune refrained from looking away. "You've haven't helped in the slightest in recent jobs. So with that, you get a lesser amount."

Cinder raised an eyebrow. There was a moment of silence. Then Cinder finally spoke.

"That sounds fair. We're ready for the next job, and know that I'm the one leading the heist. Got it?" Cinder poked Jaune in the chest. His arms remained at his sides. He grunted and turned around.

The airship landed and everyone returned to their dorms. Jaune's team was still asleep so he didn't have to worry about being spotted. He placed his duffle bag in under his bed, and dropped to his head. He fell asleep without any effort.

Jaune opened his eyes, the ceiling was grey from the light outside. It was going to be a cloudy day. He rubbed his face, then eyes. He scanned the room to see his team still asleep with Pyrrha gone on her morning exercises. He sat up and leaned forward, last night took a lot out him, both physically and emotionally.

The morning went quickly and Jaune entered his classroom. He spotted Ruby waving at him.

"Morning Ruby." Jaune said as he sat down in his seat.

"Sup Jaune, hey have you heard?" Ruby baited. That day, she had a red scarf wrapped around her neck. It was nice change from her usual bland uniform.

"About what?" Jaune asked.

"There was another shooting involving the Payday Gang. It was sporadic and the news has been saying that the gang did it to save a group of abducted girls." Ruby couldn't contain her excitement. "The Payday Gang is being labeled as heroes."

_Heroes? What the hell was so heroic about it?_ _The job was about power and money._ Jaune made sure to not to have his face turn sour of his actual thoughts.

"Isn't that cool?" Ruby was hoping to have an in depth discussion.

"A little." Jaune made sure to have his voice crack. "Listen, I'm really tired. So can we talk about this later?"

"Sure thing Jaune." Ruby nodded and walked on the other half of the room where she usually sits for Professor Port's class. He felt a presence, the same one that brought him into this. Jaune kept looking forward and gave an awkward smile in Ruby's direction. She smiled and looked at her textbook.

"The job will be on the night of the upcoming dance." Cinder stated as she sat down.

"Go figure. There will be a lack of any possible first responding Huntsmen. So we going loud or do we stealth it?" Jaune asked as he opened his textbook.

"Stealth. Regardless of those we come across. We have to be discreet about it." Cinder leaned back in her seat.

"Understood." Jaune flipped past the pages. "Shall I contact the crew and assets?"

"No need, we can still do the job here. We'll blend in when it's over. It'll just be the two of us while the rest will do surveillance at the dance."

"Hmm." Jaune was slightly surprised that Cinder was going to help for a change. "Timeframe?"

"Two minutes at the least. Four minutes at the most."

"Great." Jaune looked around the classroom. It seemed that Professor Port is late to lecture the class, again.

Earlier when all of this Payday Gang business began. Jaune learned from the given documents that Cinder was planning data theft from the Cross Continental Transit. (CCT) A tower that was constructed by the Atlas government for world-wide communication, it was a gift to the world. But the difference here in Beacon and the city of Vale was that ever since the Atlas Military showed up, the CCT is linked up with the Atlas Military with sensitive documents which General Ironwood could continue to oversee. That was the part that had Jaune stand up in class several weeks ago. Such an offense could be seen as an act of war.

"Will the guards be distracted?" Jaune asked.

"No, the ones who stand in our way will be crushed." Cinder said completely calm.

"They're soldiers, but that doesn't mean we get to kill them because they seem faceless." Jaune laid out his intentions.

"It doesn't matter. We are all predestined to die at some point, what's the harm of accelerating the process?" She asked.

"Death is the ultimate end. Something that I would think many people fear." Jaune stated. He didn't truly mean in what he said because he never thought about death before.

"It isn't. Before the inevitable we should have done what we wanted when death comes to claims us." After Cinder said that, Professor Port said he was sorry for being late then somehow had the thought of telling another story of his youth.

"Hmm." Jaune never thought of it that way. How could someone act as if they understood death? It was all subjective to think about. Because how can there be a right answer? Cinder didn't leave much for Jaune to continue the conversation so he didn't press any further.

In between his bumbling stories, Port took the time to mention the Kingdoms to the students. It was something they all knew but the education system demanded that it be part of the Huntsmen curriculum.

The World of Remnant was divided into Four Kingdoms. Vale, Mistral, Vacuo, and Atlas. Atlas had the strongest Military and was located to the North. Vale was located in the center of the world so it had the widest variety of culture. While Vacuo was the most accepting capital of the Faunus people in the West continent. (Humans with animal like traits. Sorry I forgot to mention that earlier.) To the East is Mistral and it holds tournaments every year of varying levels.

The lecture ended on a very boring note and being told to do homework that you could easily procrastinate until the day it's due. Jaune organized his belongings as Cinder stood up. There were whispers among the students. Jaune toned them out because, he didn't feel the need to justify himself to others. They can think whatever they want. Cinder left the room and at the same time, Ruby entered.

"Hey Jaune." Today we got weapon and sparing matches today." Ruby called out to Jaune, he shouldered his bag. The two made to the arena, Glynda Goodwitch had be the instructor to oversee student matches, and to reinforce the training to improve student abilities. For the first round, it would be team CRDL and against Pyrrha Nikos. It was a sure was brave, to take on Pyrrha by themselves.

The arena was wide as it was a circular shape with the student allowed to sit wherever. Jaune walked in with Ruby to see Yang, and Blake there waiting. Yang was excited, while Blake seemed distant, more so than usual. Jaune wanted to say something, but this isn't the place. He let it be. On the opposite side of the seat where Jaune was, Wolfe was sitting by a girl. They looked like they knew each other. Jaune concluded that walking over the Wolfe would be a bad idea.

In the arena CRDL waited for Pyrrha to change into her combat gear. It was a minute or so until she walked onto the arena. Her golden and bronze armor and with a calm expression, Jaune knew that CRDL was in trouble. Pyrrha was on her game today. With the lights of the arena dimming out, the match started as the CRDL rushed toward Pyrrha.

It was all over in a matter of minutes. Jaune smiled as Cardin was launched into the sky to be slammed by his own weight. He was on the ground caressing his stomach.

"Lucky shot." Cardin grunted before he fell over to his side, exhausted.

"And that concludes the match; well we have time for more matches. Would anyone care to volunteer? Blake Belladonna." Glynda called out. Blake lifted her head in awareness. "You've been rather docile of late. Perhaps-" Glynda was cut off.

"I'll do it." A voice called out. Jaune recognized it and looked toward the source. The person calling out was Mercury.

Glynda was surprised by the voice. "Alright, who shall be your opponent?" She asked.

"I wanna fight her." Mercury pointed at Pyrrha. Jaune noticed that Emerald was sitting right beside him. She had a devious smile.

"Well, I'm sorry, Pyrrha is done for today."

He noticed that Pyrrha was going to say something, and before she could, "I volunteer." Jaune stood up. _What could Mercury want with Pyrrha?_ Jaune felt a tinge of fear. He wasn't sure of the repercussions of his actions will be this day.

"Jaune Arc, is it? Very well, you've avoided this class, and it nice to see a change." Glynda swiped several names in her PDA and Jaune's name was in bright letters on the monitors overlooking the arena. Jaune looked over toward Mercury. He had a rather calm expression, and focused his eyes.

_Cinder has to remember the terms of my agreement. So what the hell is this crap? _Jaune walked down the steps before he jumped onto the arena. Because Jaune doesn't have any real combat gear, he could just walk onto the arena. He drew his sword as Mercury jumped onto the arena. Pyrrha couldn't do anything so she just walked out of the arena and returned to the seats to sit next to Ruby.

With a press of a button, Jaune's sword holster turned into a shield. Jaune walked to the opposite side of the arena. Mercury got into his stance. His legs were bent slightly and his arms were relaxed.

"Begin the match." Glynda stated.

Mercury sprinted toward Jaune; he raised his left leg for a downward crescent kick. Jaune lifted his shield just in time to absorb the blow. He raised his sword in an upward thrust but Mercury used the shield to jump on the opposite side of Jaune. Jaune turned around and was high kicked to his chest to land flat on his back.

The first point went to Mercury. Jaune rolled to his left and got back onto his feet. He smiled. "Hmm." Mercury smirked. _Show me what you got. You could handle Adam, so what's the problem?_ He thought.

Jaune sensed the mental game of Mercury. He couldn't let that grey menace get in his head. Jaune adjusted his stance. He braced his shield with a reaffirmed grip, and with that he locked his right arm into a 90 degree stance. It was so he could adjust for a slash or thrust. Mercury and Jaune sprinted toward each other.

"Hey, your friend is pretty good." Ruby commented to Emerald.

Mercury jumped up and reversed kicked Jaune's shield to launch him back, or at least that was the plan. But with a press of a button, the shield became the handle. It was gone and Mercury's kick just breezed in the air. Jaune took hold of his handle and leaned back to avoid the kick and brought it horizontally to Mercury's stomach. He was winded and with a swipe of Jaune's sword, a sash Mercury always wore waved on the air. Jaune was calling Mercury out.

Jaune didn't wait for a response, so he pressed on with his attack. Several slashes and thrusts, had Mercury dodge every attack but to use his legs would mean for him to anticipate Jaune's next move. In every slash, Mercury recognized a simple pattern. In a next slash, he was ready.

When it finally came, Mercury sidestepped the slash to close the distance onto Jaune. It was there, he was planning to sweep Jaune's feet and then bring his boot to Jaune's throat. The matches were set to points of victory. Then the slash came. He sidestepped it and as he focused his vision, he was greeted with a force of handle becoming a shield again. Jaune predicted Mercury's plan. So now that Mercury was on his back, the sword was at his chin. One point went to Jaune.

Jaune walked backward for several steps as Mercury got to his feet. It was a clean slate; the two were ready for what happens next. They didn't need to show any expression, the two were going head to head. Mercury's boots countered Jaune's sword, but Jaune's shield was prepared for Mercury's onslaught. That's when Jaune's shield started to shift into the handle. Mercury jumped forward and with three jabs, it had Jaune lost his balance. This ended as he was kneeling down to Mercury.

"The victory goes to Mercury. Alright, so who's next?" Glynda looked out to the class.

Jaune reversed his sword to support him to get to his feet; he strapped his holster and sheathed his blade. He looked out to see Ruby smiling and Pyrrha nodding. To his right, Jaune looked at Wolfe. He was impressed as well. That was enough for Jaune to feel better about himself. Mercury jumped out of the arena and sat next to Emerald.

"Learning is so much fun." Mercury faked his giddiness to Emerald.

From there, Jaune left the arena by walking around to the locker room to wash his face. After that, he walked back to the seats of Ruby, Yang, Blake, and Pyrrha. They all told him some reassuring words. Before the class ended, Glynda reminded everyone about the upcoming dance that weekend. Jaune had a thought in his head for the longest time. He just needed a guitar. For the rest of the day, Jaune went about to catch up for his classes. That night, he agreed to do some training with Pyrrha.

That day after the classes ended, Jaune barrowed a guitar from the music department. He walked the front door of team RWBY's dorm. Jaune made a fool of himself as he tried to ask out Weiss to the dance.

Lately with so much on his mind, he felt like Weiss was the only one could help. She's beautiful, has eloquent manner of personality, and has a fantastic voice to sing. Jaune overheard her singing to herself on several occasions. He smiled his usual goofy smile. With crappy lyrics he wrote in five minutes. He just watched as the door slammed in his face. She was kind enough to open it again, but was slammed in a matter of seconds. Jaune looked down; he knew from the very beginning that this was a terrible idea. He walked down the hall.

_It's not like I need to go the dance anyway._ He shrugged to himself. He walked off to return to the guitar he barrowed without asking to the music department. He wondered back to the roof to wait for Pyrrha. After a training session and a moment of self-pity then explained it to Pyrrha, Jaune ended the conversation by the playful banter of saying if Pyrrha doesn't come to the dance alone, he would wear a dress.

He wondered off to go to sleep early that night at his dorm. The next day, he talked it over about being a loser. Lie Ren, didn't have anything helpful to say. Pyrrha suggested speaking from the heart. Jaune felt like he didn't have anything to lose so he wondered off to ask Weiss out properly.

The day was coming to a close after the sun set that day. Jaune found a white doily flower. He heard that they were Weiss' favorite flower. He could only get one but he felt it was enough. He spotted her in the school courtyard. Just about before he could say something to her, she shouted to someone else.

"Neptune!" Weiss called out. Jaune looked around and hid behind a pillar that held up the building. She put her hands behind her back and started to rub her legs together. "I was wondering if you'll accompany me to the dance."

That was all that Jaune needed to hear. He cast the flower to the ground. He looked out to the city. He didn't want to sulk in some far off corner. He needed to vent and didn't think much about it. He walked to his dorm, lucky for him, his team wasn't in the room. He grabbed his duffle bag. Before he knew it, he was standing on an airship to get back to the city. He walked out of the ship and just wondered around the city. After an hour of walking, he came across a small district that had four stores all on one street.

_I guess I'll do it here._ Jaune concluded as he walked into the closest alleyway. He dropped his bag and opened it. Inside was clean and well-tailored suit. A cyan-blue, and underneath rest his mask. The Crescent moons glimmered off the street light as he set it on. To whatever happens here, he didn't care.

This area was pretty vacant of people; all the stores had their lights on. There was a fine china shop, an electronics store, a coffee shop, and a convenience store. _A nice place to have a robbery_. The score didn't matter, or how bad it will become with the police. Jaune pulled out an MP5k submachine gun from his bag. His sword and shield was still at his side as well. The bag also had his suit, and body armor. Jaune started his personal heist.

He walked onto the street, no one paid attention to him yet. Jaune turned to his right and walked into the fine China shop. All the pottery neatly arranged on shelves. He became Crescent once again. When the cashier noticed him, she froze in absolute fear. She heard the news, she was a young woman working a part time job, and she has to deal with a robber.

Crescent walked to the desk, there was no one else in the store. He lowered his MP5k and had his M92F on his left hand. "You know what I want, and please. Make it quick." Crescent tilted his head. He did it for added measure to frighten the girl. She pressed several buttons randomly on the cash machine. It binged open and she grabbed all the large bills.

"I thought you guys were heroes." The girl stated with venom in her tone. She was partly correct. Crescent wanted to dignify himself but, he let her speak several more words. She passed him the money.

"Show me your hands." Crescent stated. His mask was still pointed toward her face. She complied. Crescent reached into his pocket and pulled out three zip ties. He laced her wrists with two ties and had a larger one on her ankles. She was mostly immobilized. He carried her into the back room, and there, Crescent noticed a small safe. He thought about opening it up to see if it had anything. But he didn't feel like waiting. For some reason or another, the china shop had no security cameras.

Crescent looked at the girl. "What's happened to the cameras?"

"All are deactivated; the boss is a lazy shit and plans to update the security this Monday." The girl answered.

"Alrightly then." Crescent walked out of the room. The girl wasn't screaming or anything. She just stared at the wall and figured that she was going to be stuck there for the night. After a moment, there were footsteps. She was happy to be rescued so she could quit this boring job.

To her dismay, Crescent returned with a small machine that had a monitor strapped to it. It was placed onto the safe and was turned on. It was a drill to break into the safe. The girl just watched as all of this happened. The monitor was in bright blue; in the center was yellow bolded numbers. It displayed 110 seconds with a yellow progress bar. Crescent nodded to himself and left the room.

In the street, it was still empty from people. So he walked across the street to the electronics store. Inside, the lights may be bright, but it was closed down, and the doors were locked. It was metal, so Crescent couldn't shoot at the door. If he did, then the area would be alert to his presence.

"Fuck it." Crescent adjusted his pistol and fired at the glass. It shattered and he reached to the lock to unlatch it. It was opened and Crescent walked inside. The employees were gone, so it made the job a bit easier. He walked to the cash register, and pressed the buttons to open it. He grabbed all the lien the machines hand except the coins. It was rather easy. He walked out to see that no one was out into the street. The silent alarm must have gone off.

He didn't think too much about it. So he walked along the sidewalk. There he entered the convenience store. There was no one but there were cameras. The front desk was empty. All around were two aisles for the snacks and other assorted stuff. There ahead of him was a narrow backroom. To the left of the cashier's table were two glass windows. Was a rather odd, place to put two windows. Then out came a Faunus man who looked like part deer. His eyes were fine toned, and forehead had two small antlers. He looked at Crescents mask was just stared. He didn't react until Crescent said a word.

"I-"

"Oh my dust! I can't believe it. The Payday gang wants to rob my crappy store!" The man smiled. It took Crescent completely off guard, the man walked to his cash register in a happy mood. He had light brunette hair and appeared to be in his late thirties. He looked rather fit and wore a grey t-shirt with blue jeans.

"I never thought my shop could ever be on the radar of such well known criminals!" The man didn't show any fear toward Crescent.

"One day, just one day. Someone would see my worth, like what my wife always said. Rest her soul." The man looked behind the register to his wall. There was a picture of his wife and himself, both showing the love that they shared for one another.

"Great, as long as you know why I'm here." Crescent shrugged. The Faunus man walked to his backroom to get a camera. It was disposable one. He walked out with a smile still on his face. "Is it okay if we took a picture?" The Faunus man nodded.

Crescent just stared at the man. "Sure."

The man walked beside Crescent and had the camera reverse and took several pictures. He even asked to have the gun posed to his head. After seven or so pictures the man walked behind his register. "I'm sorry, but all I got is 300 lien in the register, the rest was used as payment toward the local crime gang." The Faunus man shrugged.

Crescent didn't feel like making the situation extremely worse. "It's fine, just hand me some snacks." The Faunus man scrambled to his fridge that housed the drinks. He passed it off to Crescent. "Thank you so much. You saved those girls from Junior's gang. Heroes are welcomed here." The Faunus man grinned as Crescent took the drink. In his other hand was a sandwich and a bag of chips.

"You're a very lonely man, aren't you?" Crescent asked.

"You have no idea." The Faunus man laughed. Crescent shrugged and walked back to the China shop. His drill would have been done by then, or probably jammed. Like all the other fucking drills. They take forever all the while as Crescent and the Payday gang had to deal with heists. He entered the shop to see the woman he tied up still sitting down.

She looked up at Crescent. The drill stopped and the safe was open as well. Inside were three rolls of cash. And for some reason, a half-eaten sandwich? Who leaves a sandwich? Crescent pulled the bit of food out. The girl just shrugged.

"Shouldn't you be trying to escape?" Crescent asked.

"I would, but I'm not in a rush tonight. And if I deal with the police, that would take a long damn time. I also heard the gun shot."

"Don't worry; it was used to break glass." Crescent said as he pocketed the money.

"Ooohhh, that store. No luck actually. That isn't linked to the security grid. It became that way when the local gang rolled in." The girl tilted her head left and right.

"Huh, I must have been that way for the convenience store."

"Oh, you must have met Mr. Cloud. He has his private system. But not able to link with the police." The girl stated. "He's kind but a little weird."

"You're taking this rather calmly." Crescent raised his eyebrow under his mask.

"This is a blessing in disguise. Also, Stockholm syndrome. You never pointed the gun to my face, yell at me, or do any kind of real harm. You just gave enough for me to quit my job." The woman shrugged. "Besides, when I'm found like this, my boss would have to make it compensate for my tragic and horrifying event_._" The girl gave a sad tone at the end. _A real damsel in distress._

"Well, best wishes to you." Crescent nodded, he left the soda and in front of her, as well as a bag of chips and sandwich. The food was left at the girl's feet.

"Thank you." The girl leaned forward to open the soda.

Crescent left the store and walked in front of the coffee shop. There were only two people sitting by themselves with a man in a coffee uniform. Everyone was just minding their own business. No one investigated the gunshot. The surrounding area wasn't put on high alert.

Crescent felt a very unusual feeling. So with that, Crescent walked back to the alleyway to change his clothes, and mask, along with to hide his weapons. When he got there, someone was waiting for him.

It was Wolfe. He sat beside Jaune's bag with his own mask on. The demon mask.

"Hey there boss."

"Evening Wolfe."

"So what are you doing way out here?"

"Just wanted to vent my frustration. Tonight will go down as my must unusual heist ever. Apparently this area is under the rule of a small gang that isn't part of Junior's gang." Jaune offered his hand to lift Wolfe up.

"Pity, so are we going to wreck this gang?" Wolfe stood up. Eager for the answer.

"Indeed. I'll contact some people to do some research on the area." Jaune pulled his mask off.

"Sure thing boss. How much did you make?"

"About 13,000 lien, can you help with something?" Jaune asked.

"Sure thing."

"I need you to help me pick out a dress."

"You gotta be fucking kidding me." Wolfe dropped his jaw.

"I made a bet slash promise. I'm just being prepared." Jaune admitted.

Wolfe looked down toward the ground. "Fuck it. I know a store that has a deal going on tonight. Don't ask me how I know that." Wolfe waved his hand.

"I realized now how much of an angst filled jackass I've been. I'm glad I didn't do anything really stupid. I was mad at myself more than anything. So, when did you start following me and were you going to stop me?" Jaune stated as the two walked through the alley.

"Since you got off the airship, and I didn't have a weapon, but it seemed like you had everything under control. I was on my way back to the dorms. I wasn't sure if you were planning to do a job tonight." Wolfe adjusted his backpack. "You see, I like to carry my mask around in my backpack."

"Hmm." Jaune responded.

"After we get the dress, I know this great burger joint that we could eat at. I don't know about you, but I'm starving." Wolfe chuckled at the end. The two spent the night to kill some time before they went back to Beacon.

**Yeah, call me a weirdo to make an odd heist. But I thought it was fun to do. Also, sorry for the delay. Major writers block. This chapter goes alongside Episode 5 of Volume two of RWBY. I know I cut corners around the part of Jaune asking Weiss out but I didn't feel the need to repeat what happened in the show. As always, tell me what you think in a review and have an excellent day.**


	11. Chapter 11, The Stealth Job

**I'm sorry I haven't come up with a proper description of Wolfe because I thought I needed to find something closer to RWBY than Payday. Check the first link for Wolfe's appearance by an artist from the Deviantart website. The song for this fight will be "**City Combat**" from the Binary Domain soundtrack. So, now that the groundwork has been laid, there is another job for the dance.**

**Wolfe's Appearance: art/It-s-Payday-Time-463720949**

**The song:** ** watch?v=k3qNQGSHp4c**

**Thank you so much for returning for another chapter.**

"I can't believe the store was excited to help us." Wolfe rubbed his forehead as he walked out the store. Jaune was close behind with a bag with a white dress meant for his proportions. It was a rather nice dress, and the bet is a bet. _An Arc never goes back on their word… Cinder included, as much as she was worth_. Jaune's eyebrows narrowed slightly as he walked.

"I don't know. All the women gave us funny looks as we did. You know a lot about how to get the proper idea on how to get a dress." Jaune pondered the thought. He noticed by now, he never actually learned much about Wolfe since he met him. Here was his chance.

"I have an uncle that makes suits and an aunt that makes dresses, they're basically tailors. When I was young, my parents didn't want to deal with me so I was pawned off to them."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-" Jaune was cut off my Wolfe.

"No need, it's not like it's your fault. My dad was a deadbeat and my mother is happy with him for the most part. So they don't mean that much to me anymore. Hell, my Uncle and Aunt have been better parents to me than them." Wolfe shrugged as he walked. "My Aunt and Uncle never had any malice toward me or anything, so they taught me the trade of high end tailoring." Wolfe put his hands into his pockets.

Jaune couldn't think of anything original to say besides the generic 'that's good.' He didn't feel the need to say it. So he said what came to his mind. The two walked across the street as the lights turned to blue as was time for them to cross the street.

"Well, you got great skills at dresses and suits." _Way to go genius._ Jaune berated himself.

"Yeah." Wolfe looked at the ground as he walked. After a couple of more blocks, the two came across a nice place. It looked like its own business, and the people inside were sparse. The place was called, Dion's place. It wasn't a clever name, but it works for the most part. The surrounding street was mostly nice for the most apart from the crack ridden road.

"This is the place." Wolfe held the door open for Jaune. The interior was decent, the walls looked faded but the furniture looked well kept. Everything was wooden, and the place tried to look presentable as it could. There wasn't a hostess to guide them to a seat. Wolfe kept leading the way. There was table on the far west side; it overlooked the street with glass windows. It was here, that Wolfe sat down and Jaune followed his example. _This is pretty quaint for the most part._

"We just have to wait for a moment, and we'll be seen by a waitress." Wolfe stated.

"Okay then." Jaune looked around some more and turned back to Wolfe. There was complete silence between the two. Other than the jobs to do, there wasn't anything for them to talk about. It was like all awkward events in everyone's lives. Then the waitress came.

"Well good evening, what might I get for you today?" The voice stated as Jaune looked at her. The waitress was a girl in her late teens just by first glance. Her complexion was of a dark tan that was complemented her hair. It was a black and at her bangs, the hair was dyed to a dark violet. She didn't wear any makeup, so her appearance was completely natural. Her neck had a silver choker that had a yellow emblem of Vacuo. She was indeed an attractive woman. Something in Jaune's mind tugged at him though. He recognized her, but he can't recall from where.

"Evening, Vivian." Wolfe smiled as he turned to her.

"Will it be the same as before?" The waitress whose name was Vivian asked.

"Yes, and make it for two." Wolfe nodded toward Jaune.

"Alrighty then." Vivian wrote the order down into her notepad. She looked at Jaune. "Say, I remember you. You were the guy that fought in the arena yesterday." She pointed her pen at Jaune. Then it struck Jaune. Vivian was the girl that sat next to Wolfe at the arena. She was pretty far away so Jaune couldn't let her register to his memory.

"Yeah, that was me." Jaune said.

"That was pretty cool that you took on the transfer student. Everyone seems to steer clear from them." Vivian nodded. "Well, let me get your order ready." She walked off.

"You know her?" Jaune asked when Vivian was far enough away. Wolfe turned to Jaune.

"Yeah, she's a student at Beacon. I have her in two of my classes."

"Cool cool."

"Okay." Wolfe said. This was a moment before it becomes awkward again. _Think Jaune, don't lose the momentum._

"So, are you going to ask her out to the dance?" Jaune said on a whim.

"Maybe." Wolfe shrugged. _Now I'm getting somewhere._ Jaune straightened his back.

"Why?" Jaune tempted.

"Because I don't know if she even has a date yet or boyfriend."

"Are we even here for the burgers?" Jaune rolled his eyes.

"We are. I just wasn't expecting Vivian to be working tonight." Wolfe responded. "That and my new recent activities."

Jaune looked at the table. He remembered the reason toward his help to Cinder was because of how he wanted to keep his team out of harm's way. Jaune never thought about others that might be affected by the process. Wolfe was in the crossfire as he was roped into the Payday Gang.

Vivian returned with two plates of well-done hamburgers. "You guys are pretty lucky. These were made for another customer but never showed up to claim the food. So here you go."

The burger looked the same as all the others Jaune ate in the past. It had sliced lettuce, tomatoes, with golden brown wheat bun. There was a side of French fries on the plate. Jaune took hold of the food, and then took a bite.

It had a new and unique taste. The meat was glazed with spices and on the inside; it was soaked with barbeque sauce. So it had tangy taste with a kick. It all blended together very well, and Jaune savored the bite as he chewed. It was a heavenly burger.

"Thank you." Wolfe said before he took a bite. "So what do you think now?"

"It's wonderful; I haven't had anything like this before." Jaune said after he swallowed his second bite.

"Yeah, back when I delivered pizzas, I would visit here before I went home." Wolfe clarified.

"I take it that's how you met Vivian?"

"Yep."

The two allowed the silence to settle in as the two ate their meals. It was great burger and Jaune learned how hungry he must have been. With all the stress lately, Jaune must have ignored his stomach. _I might be letting the stress get to me. _

"So what's the next job?" Wolfe asked.

"I can't say, and we don't need the extra firepower. Just be mentally prepared for the next job okay? I called and I paid the hacker Bane to look into the gangs in the area. We just need to wait on him." Jaune said. The surrounding tables were empty with just a man sitting on the opposite side of the burger joint sitting close to a radio. The radio spewed something about odd individuals in animal masks being murderous heroes.

"Got it." Wolfe took a drink of his water. "You know; I always felt there was something odd about that Cinder girl. I just get his odd feeling of not to trust her. At all."

"You're not the only one."

"What's going to happen when all of this is over?" Wolfe asked. "Have you ever given it any real thought?"

"Cinder leaves with what she wants then gets the hell out of my life. As much as I like to think some sort of cosmic force brought her in to my life to shit all over if for its personal amusement, I have to deal with it." Jaune gave a small bit what really burdened his mind.

"I see. Well, I just hope she doesn't stab you in the back at the end of it all." Wolfe chuckled. "There is just too much going on for it to be simple."

…..

_Just how am I supposed to know if Cinder really does keep her word?_

…..

Jaune finished the rest of his meal and so did Wolfe. During the time that they ate, they had several bits of small talk, and then they finished their food. Vivian noticed that they were done and walked to their table.

"Here's your check." Vivian placed it on the table. She returned to the kitchen. Jaune turned to Wolfe. Wolfe stared at Jaune then looked at the check then back to Jaune.

"Don't look at me. I don't have any money on me." Wolfe did a nervous smile. "I didn't pull off a job tonight."

Jaune just squinted at Wolfe as he took the check and place the money inside. The waitress looked like she was on her way back for the payment. Jaune had a devious idea and Wolfe wasn't expecting it. It was payback on the first degree.

"Well, thanks for bringing me along Wolfe. I was thinking. WHY have you not asked out Vivian out to the dance tomorrow night?" Jaune stated in the most obvious way he could. Wolfe turned to Jaune wide eyed. There was a stomp at his foot but only at the tip of his toes, so Jaune barely felt it. Wolfe turned to the waitress. She had a slight smile as she took the money for the food and walked to the main desk. Wolfe kept a forced smile and when Vivian was far way enough.

"I'm going to slit your throat in your sleep and was the juices flow." Wolfe said in a cold stare. _This is what you get for making me pay for the food._

Jaune and Wolfe stood up and walked toward the exit.

"Hold on." Vivian called out. She walked up to the two and with a piece of paper, she pushed it into a Wolfe's front pocket and he looked at her in utter confusion.

"That has my contact info. We're still going to the dance tomorrow, right?" Vivian tilted her head. Jaune had his left shoulder bump Wolfe a step forward. He looked directly at Vivian.

"Why of course!" Wolfe coughed at the end of his sentence.

"Great, you know, I've been waiting for you to ask." Vivian looked behind herself. "I gotta clean up here tonight. I'll see you tomorrow." Vivian nodded and turned around to kitchen. Wolfe had a buried expression of extreme excitement as he turned around and did a light fist pump. Jaune smiled as he opened the door to leave.

"Forget about my death threat. I'm over it now." Wolfe slapped Jaune's back. Not with force but with some excitement.

"I'm just glad it worked out."

"When do I call her, or pick her up, or or or…" Wolfe's mind was going off in a million different directions.

"That's your problem, not mine." Jaune chuckled as the two walked to the closest airship station. They weren't pestered by anyone, and Jaune welcomed it. He didn't want to be a burden but he had to have his fun every now and again. Too bad, Wolfe was the one in the crossfire. They got back to their dorms with no difficulty.

On the day of the dance, classes that day were cancelled in preparations of the event. Jaune woke up to cook some food for his team. It was something Jaune felt like he needed to do. The hole he's been invited to seems to only get deeper and deeper. So he at least wanted the team at least to have several fond memories rather than spiteful ones.

"Wakey wakey." Jaune said as he got a dozen and half pancakes ready. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora all woke up. There was a side of eggs, bacon, and orange juice at the dorm's table.

"What's all this?" Pyrrha rubbed her eyes. Her nightgown was a light crimson. She shared the opposite side of the room with Nora. Jaune walk to her with a small tray for her.

"I just felt like doing something nice." Jaune shrugged. The night before, Wolfe made a joke of Jaune was going to be betrayed by Cinder at the end of all this. Since he said that, the thought has never left Jaune's mind. To be a leader is to take responsibility of your own actions and how it could impact those around you. Pyrrha laughed as Nora flicked a pancake at Jaune's face. Ren smiled at the sight as well.

They all got dressed and since they had nothing better to do, the team decided to go do their own thing. Nora and Ren decided to walk around town. Pyrrha went to the gym to practice more weapons training. Jaune stayed in the dorm to plan out what to get for the future jobs. It was all hidden underneath all of his homework and textbooks. So in case someone walked in on him, they could disregard it as studying.

Jaune looked at his phone and dialed his main information hacker. The alias was Bane; Jaune could tell it was just a calling card, rather than a real name. The scroll rang for several seconds before there was an answer.

"This is Dale's tech service."

"Cut the crap Bane, it's me Jaune."

"I know, I just scanned your transmission, no one is tapped in. What do you want?" Bane retorted.

"How's it going with the research I asked you to do last night?" Jaune got the point.

"Smoothly, there are some rough edges in my research but it's coming along nicely. Do you want me to send you several coded documents to your dormitory?"

"Yes, but send it my friend Wolfe. You know his address don' you?" Jaune walked to his window to get a lookout. He felt a bit on edge because of the chance of anyone eavesdropping, but he couldn't really go anywhere else without arousing suspicion of his teammates.

"All I really got to tell you is that the gang operates in a business of drugged compounds of Dust, have an extortion ring, and are expanded all over the world, but don't have the balls to go against any real organized crime groups. I'm narrowing down their main hideout, and places of business." Bane stated as he stared into his monitor.

"Great, please send the info as soon as you can." Jaune said as he hung up on his scroll. He walked to his duffle bag and placed all of the documents he was given inside. He felt glad, even though he's jackass to be doing such things, his team still respects his personal space. He spent the rest of the morning and afternoon to catch up on all of his classes with homework and papers he has to write. Time passed quickly as the sun gave an orange glow over the city. Jaune leaned back from his chair to stretch his back. When he finished stretching, the door to the room opened up.

"Wait, you're still here?" Ren's voice came from the door.

"Hey Ren. I just had the perfect day to catch up is all. Not that I got anything important to do either."

"What about your other friends. I spotted that kid that you hung out with several times at the library today. He was looking a bunch of books and he kept mumbling to himself."

"Do you mean Wolfe?"

"Yeah him. Or the transfer students." Ren shrugged as he walked to his bed. He pulled out a drawer from his dresser, and took out a suit. It was about two hours before the dance even started. Ren placed the suit on his bed and laid it out in an orderly fashion.

"Maybe. I don't know, I just got a lot on my mind."

"Well you still got us." Ren shrugged as he took hold of his suit and walked to the bathroom to take a shower for the dance. Ren closed the door and shower turned on after a couple of seconds.

_That's what worries me… _Jaune closed his book and took his duffle bag and left the room.

Two Hours later, at the Dance.

Jaune stood near a window watching over the students as they all socialized and several danced. He didn't feel left out, he was just a bit happy to just be an onlooker. Because seriously, being alone at a dance is a crappy feeling in of itself. He looked to his right to see Emerald and Mercury enter through the main doors dressed for the occasion as well. Yang and Weiss planned for the event with the decorations. So Yang had the job to welcome students to the dance. Mercury smiled at Yang as he and Emerald past her. Emerald stuck her tongue out and Mercury chuckled at her. Slowly but surely they approached Jaune. Mercury walked off to get a cup of punch as Emerald walked beside Jaune.

"Cinder wants you to report to in front of the CCT in Twelve minutes. A second late, and she'll do it without you." Emerald said as Mercury came back. Three cups in hand. He passed one to Emerald and Mercury. Jaune opened his scroll and set an alarm clock to go off several minutes before Cinder wanted him to show up.

"I forgot to mention, that was a good match several days ago. I get caught up in being competitive sometimes. No hard feelings?" Mercury held out the cup.

_At least he isn't as bad I thought. But then again, he does work for Cinder_. Jaune took the cup. "Yeah, no hard feelings."

"We're on the comms and we'll keep you posted from here. We'll keep an eye on the guests." Mercury said. With that Emerald nodded and they walked off to blend into the crowd. Jaune looked through and spotted Wolfe among them. He wore the same cyan-blue suit with his head held high as Vivian was at his arm. She dressed in an exquisite amethyst dress. The shoulder straps had a light color and on the shirt portion of the dress it was sparkling in the light, but not in an overbearing way. She smiled as she walked with Wolfe.

_Good for you buddy_. Jaune thought as he walked along the wall, he spotted Ruby staring out as well. Jaune decided to walk beside her and just say someone. He sidestepped beside her.

"I see you're hanging out at the punch bowl as well?" Jaune asked with a flat tone.

"Yeee_ppp_." Ruby let her lips make a bubble popping sound.

"To the socially awkward." Jaune leaned his cup to Ruby, she chuckled as she tapped the glass of his cup with hers.

"I'm sorry everything didn't work out with Weiss." Ruby stated. No matter much Jaune tried to play off things, everything can take its toll. _Here I thought I got over the angst._ Jaune rolled his eyes mentally at himself.

"Yeah, Neptune is pretty cool." Jaune played off his emotions. "I can see why Weiss went with him." Jaune took a sip of his punch. Ruby then explained that Weiss came to the dance by herself. She told Ruby that she had too much to worry about, and couldn't make time for boys. Jaune looked out to the crowd to see Neptune making jokes and have Blake and Sun laugh beside him. He had a feigned expression as he was pretending to be a famous actor. _Now that tears it!_ Jaune shouted into his mind.

"Hold my punch." Jaune offered his cup to Ruby. She took hold of it as she watched him walk off. Jaune felt that gave him a reason to behave the way he wanted to. It felt a little justified to do something to Neptune, the cocky bastard. Jaune walked straight until a red dress passed by. Jaune looked at the face of the girl to see Pyrrha walking through the crowd. She had a glum expression, and it seemed like she was going to the Balcony. Jaune looked at Neptune, then back to Pyrrha's direction.

_Neptune can wait_.

Jaune walked to the Balcony to see Pyrrha looked out over the courtyard. "Hey Pyrrha."

"Hello Jaune." Pyrrha turned around. The following conversation was that Jaune learned that no one asked Pyrrha out to the dance. She mentioned how she felt a little insecure of how she was always seen as the 'Goddess of Victory.' She didn't like how everyone would think that she is above everyone else and they often isolate her. She felt that she gained a lot since being part of team JNPR and to be a friend to RWBY. She wanted to be seen as a person, than an idol, she looked at the ground as she walked off back to the dance floor.

"Ugh wai-" Jaune couldn't think anything helpful to say. As he turned around, Neptune came into view. _Great, now this asshole._

"Hey uh, Jaune right? I don't think we ever had the chance to really speak until now. I thought it would great to have a formal introduction between us."

"…Yeah."

"Ballroom dancing is pretty lame." Neptune played off his 'cool guy' routine.

"How could you turn her down like that?" Jaune got right to the point.

"What? Who?" Neptune wasn't expecting Jaune to ask about such an unusual subject.

"Weiss." Jaune felt like shouting.

"It ugh, it didn't work out?" Neptune rubbed the back of his neck.

"Too many options, Weiss asked you to the dance-" Jaune pressed on with his attack. "How could you possibly."

"I can't dance. I'm insecure about it as I just can't dance." Neptune looked to the ground. He explained how in learning how to dance, he would show himself as inadequate to do something and he felt like it wouldn't make him look cool that much to others. Jaune looked back to the courtyard.

"Well, that makes me feel a lot better about myself." Jaune said. Neptune walked beside Jaune and leaned onto the concrete railing like Jaune.

"I don't Weiss all that much. If you really want, I won't stand in your way." Neptune said.

"Do you like her?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah, she's pretty cool. I would like to get to know her a bit more." Neptune admitted.

Jaune took a deep breath. "Then just go talk to her. I bet it'll make her night. Okay? And there is no need to be cool when you do, because in all honesty, I'm makes you come off as a pompous prick." Jaune said in a calm tone. He didn't feel the need to knock Neptune down. _Either you do that or you get decked in the jaw Neptune_. "Don't let your persona dictate who you really are."

Neptune just kept looking out over the courtyard. "You know, you're a pretty rad guy."

"No need to lie to my face."

"You know what, I'll go talk to her." Neptune smiled. He held out a fist beside Jaune. They fistbumped. Neptune turned around and walked back toward the dance floor. When he did, Jaune's scroll started to beep. He looked at as it was a five minute mark before Cinder was about to start the job.

"Just one more thing left to do." Jaune tapped the alarm of his scroll.

Five minutes later

"It looks like all the dancers have partners." Emerald said into the comms. Jaune stood beside Cinder as they stood at a rooftop overlooking the surrounding courtyards.

"I'll keep my eye on the clock." Cinder stated. She looked at Jaune. He was dressed in darker clothing with black tactical pants with short sleeve black shirt with body armor in front. The pockets inside were several bits of new gear for a stealth mission. His mask was at the top of his forehead. He was bringing his Sickle blade sword, along with his Knight's SR on his back. With only three clips of ammo. He needed to be light for the mission.

Cinder wore a black outfit that looked completely custom. Her curves were easy to see. Along her waist was several pockets for stuff she needed to get the job done. Her hair looked to be a slightly redish color than her normal black color. It must have been a light hair dye for the job.

"Are you ready?" Cinder asked.

"I am, but are you seriously going to where that?" Jaune was looking directly at Cinder's masquerade mask. It was well designed mask with several detailed lines all around.

"What's wrong with it?" She asked with a hint of annoyance.

"The helmets of the Atlas military have face recognition software. It'll see through that mask and no more Cinder." Jaune said coldly.

"Then they won't see me."

"Whatever. Just use this instead." Jaune crouched down to reach inside his bag. He pulled out a crimson and black mask. It was that of a mask that looked like a slight smirk of the lips. It was perched in a faded way, and with several lines coming from the eye slits. It looked like fire was spewing out of the eyes. The fire wasn't in a bright obnoxious color but dark and effective.

Cinder looked at the mask and took off the one she was going to wear, and put on the new mask. It was a nice fit and Cinder can still see clearly from the eye slits.

"Not bad." She smirked.

Meanwhile

Ruby kept drinking punch and didn't feel like sticking around at the dance because this just wasn't her thing. She turned around to leave the gym to go back to the dorm. As she took the first step, there was a voice.

"And where do you think you're going?" Yang had her arm hook around Ruby's neck, effectively preventing her from leaving the dance. Yang smiled as she kept hold and dragged Ruby to the middle of the dance floor. There she was passed off to Nora and held her in tight grip. There was no escaping from Nora as she forced Ruby to the dance floor. Yang walked into back outside to get a breath of fresh air. She looked out onto the moon, she was happy that she successfully pulled off the job for the dance. Even Ruby is starting to enjoy it… more or less. Then in the edge of her vision, something caught Yang's eye. Mercury and Emerald couldn't see Yang leave the gym because they were focused on different parts of the room.

Yang started to walk toward the two mysterious figures in the distance.

Back at the rooftop

"Glad you like it. I've learned from a source that the battle suits the soldiers wear, it is linked to their life signs, so if one of them is killed, it will alarm the main security. Just something to keep in mind." Jaune learned that as he talked to Bane earlier when he asked about military tech. "We better move." Crescent stated.

"Indeed." Cinder said as she strapped her mask on. "Oh yeah, be sure to call me Ember."

"Sure thing, Ember." Crescent said to let the name register into his memory.

Ember and Crescent hopped over the balcony and down to the main courtyard. Below them were several other balconies so it made their advance much easier. Crescent had a bit more trouble because of his gear. By the time he got the ground, Ember was waiting for him.

"Took you long enough." Ember smirked under her mask. Crescent grunted as he looked up. They jogged across the courtyard until they were just outside of the CCT. Ember and Crescent crouched behind a bush. At the front door stood several guards and a couple of pairs walking along the perimeter of the building. Crescent readied his sickle blade.

"You sweep left." Ember ordered, Crescent nodded and the two split up. Ember sprinted had the cover of more bushes in her way, while Crescent had to deal with an open grass field. He opened a small back pocket and it was an ECM jammer. He brought four of them for the job tonight. He tossed it across along the sidewalk as a guard show immediate trouble with his Heads Up Display in his helmet. By the time it focused, a fist was displayed before the guard blacked out. Crescent took hold of the unconscious body and kneeled down to retrieve his ECM.

On the opposite side, Ember was keeping a slow pace to sneak up behind another guard. He didn't hear her, as until he felt a great about of force struck at the back of his head. Something must have rattled in his brain because his facial expression changed into that of a smiling one. He felt backwards into Ember's grip as she dragged his backwards by twenty feet to dump the body underneath a bush. She also grabbed the guard's gun and hid it by the body as well; he wasn't waking up anytime soon.

Two more guards were coming from behind Ember's location. So she sprinted forward to hide behind a large pillar to the building.

Crescent was completely prone as he was laid down in a narrow space between a small two foot concrete stair drop, as the guards got closer. The boots on the ground grew louder and louder and it was about to be that Crescent was going to be spotted. He held his breath. As the guards didn't see a small trip wire that was right below them. It pulled the pin to something and an orange mist engulfed them. It suffocated them and the two fell to the ground. Crescent stood up and jogged to their location. He pulled one of their heads up. They were knocked out.

Crescent laid the head down and started to drag a body to another isolated bush. Ember followed his example as they hid the bodies. It wouldn't be long before they had to report in to the main security. Ember opened the door and there before them was large green interior of the CCT. It had everything seem so open. Crescent was crouching down with his sickle blade at the ready. He peeked into the hall and pulled his head back. In doing that, the hallways looked clear for the most part. Ember was keeping an eye out on their flanks.

_The next part is getting to main elevator._ Jaune recalled the plans of the job. He stuck his head out again and kept himself crouched as he moved from the front door. From there Ember followed closely behind him. The CCT operates in circular hallways. So it would be a while before Ember and Crescent could make it to the main server.

Along the hall were two cameras watching both ways down the hall. Crescent spotted it and immediately took cover and so did Ember. They looked at each other. Ember nodded as she understood the situation. She lifted her head slightly then opened up one of her pockets with a small stone. _What is that supposed to do_?

Ember held it the stone like a narrow dart. She gave it a gentle toss; her clothing gave off a light orange glow. Then the stone became a narrow needle then it glided through the air and hit dead center of the camera.

_Dust clothing_. Jaune concluded. It was that when someone plays the dust chemicals into clothing to provide various abilities. Ember may have look like she's unarmed, but she probably has an entire arsenal at her disposal. So she must have been just as prepared as Crescent. He looked up and the second camera started to rotate away from the hall they were in. This was their chance to move in. Ember crouch jogged as Crescent continued to keep an eye out for any potential guards. Footsteps were closing in on the right side of the destroyed camera.

"What the?" The guard tilted his head as he stared at the camera. "Control-." Before the guard could continue his sentence, there was shiny bit of sharp metal at his throat. Crescent had his sickle blade at the ready. Ember was crouched down and kept an eye out.

"Tell them that everything is fine and you won't have to get stitches." Crescent stated as the cold eager blade made contact with the skin. _Just give him a little push and he'll fall in line._

"The camera is functional, I recommend we bring in the electronics crew tomorrow." The guard moved his hand from his ear. "Can you let me go?" He asked in a soft tone.

"Of course." There was a jab in the side of his neck with a rush of electricity, all the muscles of the guard started to spasm out. He twitched for several seconds before he fell to the ground. His entire body felt exhausted as he lay down. He drifted off into unconsciousness. Crescent put his taser in his back pocket. Ember nodded that the area was clear, they continued their advance.

Outside the CCT

Yang continued to walk as she tried to find the weird figures she saw from earlier. It all lead to the CCT building and Yang walked along the steps. She looked at the sky and learned that she was wasting a nice dance by looking for some odd figures. She chuckled to herself as she looked down to see an Atlas soldier knocked out underneath a bush.

Yang's eyes widened as a threat showed up at Beacon. She took out her scroll and by a hidden pocket that was custom made on her thigh. She pressed several buttons and her rocket locker flew to her location. She opened it up and for her combat gear.

Inside the CCT

After successfully dodging a dozen other cameras and several guards that weren't going anywhere, Ember and Crescent made it the center of the CCT. It was a hub for authorized personal to work. Seven guards stood there. Ember and Crescent hid behind a corner as they watched the soldiers. Crescent turned to Ember.

"We can't risk moving without being caught. I think we have to go loud." He pointed out.

"No need, just circle around, I see another hallway leading into the hub. We'll have to take them all out." Ember said. "I'm going to move in twenty seconds, so hurry up."

By now the timeframe they set up was scattered, it was beginning to take too long to traverse the CCT. Ember shrugged it off because they're still aiming to complete their objective.

"I'm in position." Crescent said into the comms.

"Follow my lead." Ember stood up and walked down the center of the hallway. Several guards noticed her.

"Do you have clearance for this section?" One guard asked.

"Stop." Another guard ordered. Ember sprinted forward and she punched a guard in the throat and turned to her right. A guard detached a stun baton from his belt and charged at Ember.

Crescent moved in as well. There was guard aiming his gun at Ember as she fought several of the guards as she summoned two blades. The guard was ready to make the shot. By the time he was pulled the trigger, it was knocked out of his arms and bullets glazed past Ember's head. She continued to fight off more guards.

The guard Crescent was dealing with hardened his left fist to sweep the air toward Crescent. He ducked down to avoid the attack and then he wrapped his arms around the waist of the guard and brought him to the ground. Crescent balled his fists and gave several clean sternum punches and with one clean punch to the face, cracking the helmet's visor. There was another guard in the distance that looked like he was about ready to make a call. Before Crescent could move, there were three strokes of orange light. The soldier's uniform was pinned to the wall. Ember walked up to him with a soldier's stun baton in hand.

She smiled sadistically underneath. She brought the baton up as he was gasping for air in fear. His eyes widened as she got closer and closer. Before he could speak, the baton touched his bare flesh. It sent shockwaves throughout the body. She stopped after several seconds. The guard was still breathing as he looked up glumly at the two.

"I always knew the Payday Gang always was trouble." He looked back down as Ember shocked him again. His body was flexing from the wall as he couldn't control his body. He kept shaking with every passing second. Crescent knew that that the baton didn't have enough charge to kill someone. With one last great shock, the guard's body relaxed. He was still breathing.

"Alright, we better get moving." Ember said as she turned around and walked toward the elevator. She cast the baton aside. She didn't have to worry though, because along with her outfit, Ember had black gloves for her to hide her finger prints. The elevator doors binged open as two guards saw all the men on the ground and Crescent aiming a gun at them. Ember entered the elevator and beat them into submission. When the two were down, they dragged the bodies out and they returned to the elevator.

"Is everything going according to plan?" Crescent asked. He watched the dim number lights tell them what floor they were on.

"Exceptionally well."

"You know, you already have to skill to overpower your opponents, so why the overkill?" Crescent asked after watching Ember shock a guard to submission.

"It isn't about overpowering my opponents; it's about taking away what power they have. Whenever some force becomes a shell of its former self. Then that's their problem." Ember said as they approached the floor to complete the job.

"It worked on you didn't it?" She asked as the doors to floor opened up. Crescent let out a deep sigh. He knew that Ember was right in from her last comment. He didn't want to dwell on it at the moment though.

"We have a guest leaving the dance." Emerald said into the comms.

Ember sighed. "Which one?"

"Ironwood." Emerald said as she danced with Mercury.

**Start the Song here**

"Fine, keep us posted." Ember said as she typed onto the main terminal. Crescent kept an eye out for any threats. He glance back to the monitor to see what looks like a black king chess piece. Ember took out a small USB drive and plugged it in. It was then that to whatever Ember wanted was beginning to download. The doors of the main elevator opened up, and when it did, Ember and Crescent kneeled down.

"Hello, anyone here?" A familiar voice called out. "I know someone is here from all the knocked out guards."

Crescent looked at Ember. She looked forward as she stood up. Crescent followed her lead. Before he did he looked at the monitor, there was a golden progress bar below the Chess piece; it displayed that the download would be complete in Forty-seven seconds. _This sucks._

"You know, the masks seem a bit much. Got something to hide?" Yang tried her normal tricks, to get a better understanding of her opponents. She was still mostly in her dress but the ends looked like it was torn at the ends and her arms had her golden battle gauntlets.

"So what are you doing here?" Yang pressed on. The two masked individuals continued to say nothing. Ember un-holstered one of her pockets and swiped the air on with several dust needles to be thrown at Yang. She drew her gauntlets up to fire several shells to destroy several of the oncoming projectiles. Then Crescent drew his sickle blade and circled around Yang's position. She moved her gauntlets from view and then Ember was in front of her with her twin swords. She did a throat slash Yang raised her left arm just in time to deflect the attack.

Yang had her free arm blast a round to have Ember back off then Crescent was at her to close the distance. He made plenty of horizontal slashes along with a thrust at the end. Yang saw it as her chance but then Ember came from above.

There wasn't much Yang could do, and these masked opponents are on the offensive to keep her from doing anything. So then Yang brought her fists closer together and eased her back forward. When Yang was ready, She did three rapid haymakers to fire her flame dust rounds. Covering her advance, that forced Ember to jump back as Crescent dashed forward with his Knights SR in a crouched position to fire several rounds. Yang ducked left and right.

Little did Yang know, Crescent was purposely missing his shots. He expected this so he studied a lot on Yang's abilities. Her semblance is that she can endure a lot of punishment and can dish it right back at her enemies. Yang isn't an easy target to deal with. To fight her, it comes to wits more so than strength.

So then when Yang ducked in to attack Crescent. He leaned back and tossed a flashbang grenade in the air. Yang noticed it in time and shielded her eyes. With the ringing in her ears, she looked up to find that Crescent wasn't there in front of her. She turned around to see that the surrounding area was empty.

"They got away." Yang said as her hearing came back. She's meant to endure, so her hearing was only stunned.

In a deep voice. "Not really." Then there was a kick at Yang's back. She turned around with the momentum and then she did a right straight punch to knock Crescent back several feet but he remained standing up. Yang felt like going on the offensive this time. So she punched her gauntlets together for there to be an explosion. It seemed like Yang supercharged the next round of her shots. The two charged toward each other. Yang brought her right fist to the ground to force Crescent to jump and that's what she wanted.

He was mid-air as he still had several tricks up his sleeves when Yang launched herself toward Crescent he smirked as he drew his Knights SR to fire several rounds at her gauntlet to knock her arms off balance and by the time she was close enough, she was left defenseless, for Crescent to raise his left leg to kick her back down. When Yang landed, her eyes needed a moment to refocus.

When she came to, Crescent was standing at the opposite side of the room. There Crescent stood.

"Who the hell are you!?" Yang shouted. As she prepared for the next round.

While she was doing that. Crescent heard something on the comms. "I'm outside, it's time to bug out." Ember ordered. That entire time, Crescent was covering Ember's escape.

"Roger that." He whispered. He raised his left hand, and in it were several blonde hairs from Yang. The flames of hell emanated from her eyes. Crescent stood there calmly.

"You won't be so smug when I tear that mask off your face."

Tapping something on his mask. A voice modulator was turned on. "We are the Payday Gang. This is my trophy from our fight. Come see me when you're really ready." Crescent as he stood taller.

"How about we settle this right now!" Yang reloaded her gauntlets.

"No thanks. Some other time." Crescent turned his head around to the room. That in turn influenced Yang to do the same. By her feet, above her and several terminals that surrounded her, were placed flashbang grenades. Crescent raised his left hand and pressed a button to a detonator. Then with the longest flash of light, and ringing, Yang opened her eyes to see General Ironwood kneeling down beside her.

Crescent walked out of the CCT as several soldiers were sprinting their way to the tower. Crescent and Ember were hidden several dust fields that sparkled at first but made the area seem a bit darker to see.

**The Song should end here**

"Hand me your mask." Crescent ordered. Ember didn't see the harm since they had to disappear at the dance. So Cinder pulled off her mask and walked off toward the gym. Crescent sprinted off in the narrow dark alleys to escape the incoming soldiers.

_Why the hell did I do that to Yang?_ Jaune pondered. She was a great friend to him, and sure she likes to crack jokes at the expense of others, but there was absolutely no need to humiliate her by taking her hair. Jaune looked at his hand with several bright yellow strands. Jaune shook his head and dropped the hairs onto the ground. He walked off to the alleyway that had a dumpster with his duffle back hidden beneath it.

Cinder walked through the hallways and loosened her hair and used the last of her dust in the clothing for an orange glow. It was then her stealth outfit transformed into an elegant black dress. Her hair when back to her dark brunette. They opened the doors to the dance floor. After several seconds, two soldiers walked through the doors Cinder came through.

In the middle of the dance floor, Emerald, Cinder, and Mercury watched as the soldiers looked like headless chickens. Unsure what to do. "What idiots." Cinder snickered. She explained to Emerald and Mercury that the job went off without a hitch for the most part. Mercury gave his generic bland remark. When they finished talking, there was a growing amount of laughter emanating from the dance floor. The three looked over to see Jaune Arc, in a sleeveless white dress with his black and white sneakers. He had a humble expression as he approached Pyrrha Nikos.

She saw him and had a good laugh. Then after a moment Jaune offered his hand to his teammate for a dance. Soon afterwards, the rest of Jaune's team came together for a routine that had everyone there be uplifted their emotions. The rest of the night went on as everyone started to become more excited since the JNPR's routine.

After three hours, a majority of the people there grew tired and decided to return to their dorms. Wolfe chuckled to himself on seeing Jaune actually wearing a dress. Vivian and Wolfe had a great time, and he had a job to safely see Vivian back to her dorm. Jaune and Wolfe fistbumped as he left.

Ren and Nora grew tired and walked back to the dorm. Everyone was calming down from the nice evening. Jaune was too tired to want to go back to his dorm so his head started to bob up and down at his chair.

"Night Jaune." Neptune said as he, Sun, Blake all went back to their dorms. Jaune leaned forward and started to fall asleep at the table. There was a hand at his back and Jaune lifted his head. "Hey Pyrrha, I'll be back at the dorm any minute now, just give me until morning." He mumbled to himself at the end.

"Sorry, I'm not Pyrrha." A cold familiar voice spoke. Jaune's drowsiness disappeared as he looked up to see Cinder. She had her usual smirk. He felt a curling amount of anger but was bit tired to care. His back was slouched slightly; the dress was chaffing his underarms.

"As your boss, you have to do this as part of our deal." Cinder gave a smile that annoyed Jaune. He stood up in his white dress and walked beside her.

"What do you want now?" He sneered.

"Nothing much. It is after all a party." Cinder took hold of Jaune's hands. In the distance, Ruby noticed Jaune on the dance floor and at the same time, so did Pyrrha. She looked at them with and unwavering blank stare. She felt a new burning fire inside her stomach. Pyrrha looked away to look at Ruby to have a conversation about something else. Cinder glanced toward their direction and savored Pyrrha's expression. It was so sweet that no form of candy can compare.

It was a slow dance, something Jaune was accustomed to. His third oldest sister wants to be become a professional dancer, and so without any boys to help her, she forced her brother to help her every time she practiced at home. Much to Jaune's dismay.

Cinder was in the lead half the time, then Jaune took several moments to lead. She took a step back, and he followed, he stepped to the side and she complied. It was basic enough to follow. If you're going to dance to make a fool of yourself, then why care about it in the first place. His sneakers streaked and squeaked along the floor. Cinder held herself in high regard, with confidence, Jaune could sense it by the movements, and she was an experienced dancer.

"Great job at keeping Yang at bay. She's pretty tough on her own." Cinder spoke calmly. Jaune looked at the ceiling.

"I got lucky. She wasn't expecting me, and the next time. It will not be as easy." Jaune did a light shrug as he looked around the room. There were bits of paper and discarded cups all around the gym. Jaune had to stick around in the gym because Ruby asked him to help clean up when the dance ends.

After ten minutes, Cinder had her fill of dancing. She did a light bow and looked at Pyrrha. "Thank you for the dance Jaune. Good night." Cinder did a light smile. Jaune didn't let that smile fool him. He was prepared for it. But what it didn't fool, were several of the students watching from the sidelines.

Jaune turned around and sat at a table waiting for everyone to leave. Ruby walked toward the janitor's closet to get a couple of supplies to clean up. Jaune was given a broom. Tonight was a nice night, if Jaune had to admit to himself.

**Holy crap, this was THE longest chapter I've ever written for any fanfiction. About 8000 words. I shorten a majority of what happens in the show but made my own adjustments, and I think it turned out okay. I was going to split it half but then I was like "nah." I'll give the readers something worthwhile. I've noticed I've never given you guys a Stealth Heist from the Payday side, So what do you think? Did you like the song, the conversations, the development of Wolfe, and the fight scene? Please let me know. You're all so awesome for reading, and have an excellent day.**

**Operator Blake 'Roxasrock: **Thank you reading my story. I saw your G36 comment and fixed that. Thanks again.

**That Anon Kid: **Yeah, I'm a guy. Thank you for liking the story. I have a thing about overpowered characters that lead to everything to become bullshit rules and fights. Like the Dragon Ball series. Still a landmark in anime but it becomes a never ending game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. I want Jaune to learn and adjust but not be blatant to the audience. Thanks for saying it blends together, I wasn't sure how people would have taken this story. Have an excellent day.

**Gamerandartist35:** I hate that scene as well. I know it's a show but all the critical parts of the story just get zoomed past the audience. It bugs the hell out of me. I wanted to make a chapter to have a calm and not as serious heist. Yeah, the next chapter is pretty close to what you'll expect.

**AnAustrailianGamer: **Thanks, and I'm in for the long hull for the story. There is a lot for me to work with and I'm still developing ideas to work with. So I hope you'll enjoy the ride.


	12. Chapter 12, PrePlanning

**I learned that RWBY will continue, and that has me pretty content to learn that Monty's creation still has a future. That's good for me because I'll be getting new material to work with in future stories. Also, I have an announcement at the end of this chapter. Don't worry it isn't me cancelling this story, far from it actually. But I didn't want this AU to be too long. So please enjoy the chapter and read what I have to say on the bottom when you finish the chapter.**

Jaune woke up at 6:30 the next morning feeling a bit refreshed. It seemed the dance did what it was intended to do. Nora was still sleep with her have a small puddle of drool on her pillow. Ren was away but remained in bed with a comic book in hand. But for some reason or another, Pyrrha was in the room. Normally she would wake up before sunrise to enjoy a morning jog. _I guess she's just taking this day off_. Jaune moved his blanket and stretched his back.

His blue onesie was still on and he didn't care what other people thought about it. Sure it may seem weird, but Jaune always had an onesie and he wouldn't be able to sleep as well without one. He walked to the dorm's bathroom to take care of his morning hygiene and walked out after ten minutes. Pyrrha's head was up as her hair was in a frilly state and looked around the room.

"Morning Pyrrha." Jaune said as he walked to his dresser to pick out his clothes for the day. It was Sunday so there weren't any classes to worry about that day.

Pyrrha said nothing as she dropped her head back to her pillow and had her arms around it. _She must be tired after the dance last night. I don't blame her._ Jaune pulled out a black plain t-shirt and a grey button up shirt with blue jeans. His shoes and socks all neatly arranged beside the dresser. Jaune walked back into the bathroom and changed his clothes. It was rule made by the team, whenever everyone is at the dorm, then they must change in the bathroom.

Jaune walked out the bathroom fully clothed and noticed that Nora was beginning to wake up. She kept blinking her eyes and flipped her pillow over to have a dry side to continue drooling over. Ren was in the corner of his room practicing his poses and movements. Jaune always say Ren do this in the mornings, but he didn't know what exactly it was called. He decided he would finally ask about it as he walked to his bed to pull out his scroll.

He opened the scroll to see a message. It was from Wolfe. He opened it.

"Hey boss, listen thanks for setting me up with Vivian last night. I know this is short notice, but I got a large package from Bain. It's something I think we need to discuss on upcoming school projects. Since today is Sunday, I think we should get this project all sorted out before school tomorrow.-W" It was kind of impressive to know Wolfe wouldn't blatantly mention the Payday activities.

After reading the message, Jaune let the thought ponder in his head. Oh yeah, I'm still part of an 'organized crime syndicate.'

"Got it, the project needs to be talked about. Let's meet up in the courtyard, we can discuss it there.-J" He pressed send on his scroll.

"So where did you get the dress last night?" The voice was Ren's as he didn't look away from his comic.

"Remnant Outfitters." It was a small time business that was located downtown. Jaune adjusted the shoulders of his button up shirt.

"Not bad, do they make anything else besides dresses?" Ren asked.

Jaune sat down on his bed and started to tie his shoes. "I think you can do special orders of silk clothing."

"That's good to know." Pyrrha finally spoke. She rubbed her eyes then stared at the ceiling. "Where are you going?"

"To meet a friend for breakfast." Jaune answered.

"With whom?" Pyrrha pressed on.

"By buddy Wolfe." Jaune gave the bare bones.

"Okay." Pyrrha turned her head.

_Is Pyrrha mad at me?_ Jaune thought as his expression went blank when he grabbed his scroll, wallet, and weapons. Pyrrha turned her head to Jaune. She did a light smile and got up herself. _I guess it's just me overthinking it._ Jaune concluded in his head as he walked to the door he picked up a backpack as well.

"Be seeing you." Ren said as Jaune closed the door.

"See you later." He replied. Jaune turned around as he shouldered the straps of the bag on his back. He looked around to see the hallway was mostly empty. Jaune looked to his right to see Yang walk toward him. Since RWBY's dorm was right across the hall, Jaune didn't feel any kind of fear.

"Morning Yang." Jaune did a light wave.

"Sup Vomit-boy." Yang didn't bother to look at Jaune. In her right hand was green cylinder and she didn't look the least bit happy.

_Yeesh_. Jaune thought as his reply to her snarky comment. She wasn't in any mood to talk; as she walked past Jaune then she opened her door. Yang was immediately rushed by her teammates. All three anxious to talk to Yang.

"So what happened?" Ruby asked. _She was pretty blunt about it so that isn't really new… wait, what did what happen?_ Jaune pretended to kneel down and appeared to be searching for something in his bag.

"Well, well. I don't really know where to start." Yang rubbed the back of her neck. Blake looked past Yang to see Jaune. She narrowed her yellow eyes and motioned Yang to walk into the room. The door was closed and there was muffled words emanating from the room. Jaune recalled all the details of his fight with Yang last night. He lifted his bag and slowly set it against the wall. He leaned as close as he could beside the door.

"So what did Ironwood and Ozpin have to say?" Weiss cut to the point.

"Both of them didn't expect any kind of breach of security at all. Sure they heard of the Payday Gang from the news but other than that, they never cared."

"So you're telling me, not only the White Fang, Torchwick, and Junior's gangs been working together, we also have to worry about the Payday Gang as well?" Ruby asked as she sounded like she was chewing on something. _Ruby and her cookies_.

"Well we don't know for sure if the Payday Gang is part of Torchwick's dust robberies or the White Fang's recruitment." _Wait isn't that Torchwick guy that supposed master criminal I heard of? And what's this of the White Fang?_ Jaune began to feel all the more puzzled.

"There isn't much for us to work with. But we do know the White Fang is operating in the Southeast region. So I think we get to do our missions in two weeks, I say we start there." Blake said.

"From the talk I had, Ironwood was hard pressed to know something important was data stolen. There are too many things at play its making my head hurt." Yang was sarcastic at the end. There was a brief pause. _Oh no!_ Jaune was mentally thinking of excuses in case one of them opened the door.

"Well, we can't know the answers right away, so we just have to keep digging." Ruby said in her hyperactive tone. Blake and Weiss chuckled lightly.

"Yeah we will, once I get my hands on the throat of that Payday fucker!" Jaune could just feel the flames of Yang's fury. "The same goes for that bitch with the sword." _Who could they be talking about?_

"It's okay Yang. Losing is just us seeing in what we need to improve upon." Blake stated.

"I didn't lose against him. He just got lucky and ran off." Yang snapped back.

"Not what you told me last night." Ruby responded. "You said he was pretty tough and he outsmarted and outmaneuvered you."

"Shut it Ruby." Yang snapped again. "Oh by the way. We got something from the mail." Yang said in more positive tone. _Nice save_. Jaune wanted to laugh but didn't risk it.

"Oh something from Home!" Ruby said ecstatically. Then there was a long pause. BARK BARK. Then all of the girls gave a light shout.

"Zwei!" Ruby shouted.

"Oh it's from dad. Dear girls please take care of Zwei while I'm away." Yang sounded like she was reading off a note. BARK BARK

"He sent a dog!" Blake shouted.

"In the MAIL?" Weiss added. _Wait Ruby and Yang own a dog? That's new._

"Oh he does this all the time." Yang responded.

"Your dad or the dog?" Blake said in her cold tone. _It seems like that's all the information I'm going to get. _Jaune waited for there to be a loud noise from the room before moving away.

"So you're telling me that this little dirty, drooling, mutt… is _going to live with us foreva?"_ Weiss was talking in a cutesy tone. _Well that's new._ This was his chance. He started to walk down the hall to leave the dorm. But by the time he reached the end of the hall, the door to RWBY's room opened up. Just in time for Jaune to make a turn at the corner.

Blake stuck her head out the room and looked around. Her bow twitched as she looked. "Hey Catnip, what are you doing?" Weiss asked.

"I thought I heard footsteps." Blake said blankly, and then she blinked her eyes. "Wait did you call me Catnip?"

"Maybe." Then with that, the door closed as Weiss was shouting in terror.

Jaune rubbed the top of his forehead. _Phew, that was way way too close._ Jaune recalled what the girls said about Torchwick and the White Fang. But first Roman Torchwick. He's a criminal that started back at Atlas and eventually moved to Vale, he specializes in weapon and dust trafficking. Other than that, he's could doing small time to big game jobs at the drop of his bowler hat.

As for the White Fang, it was completely new to him. Formally a pro-Faunus protest group that over the course of eight years became a terrorist organization. They did whatever they thought was needed to further the Faunus cause of equality. But murdering innocent people and totting weapons isn't the best strategy to prove their point. They wear masks that resemble the Grimm out in Remnant. Because of how much Humans want the Faunus to be seen as monsters. Not that it's true, it seemed that the White Fang is a bit melodramatic on their whole mask thing, since it was just the Atlesian news outlets were bigoted idiots that made it a trend. The White Fang is a deadly force if allowed the chance to succeed in their missions.

Jaune recalled the vision of the White Fang's Vanguard. Adam. Jaune shook his head and looked forward to see a set of eyes staring at him.

"GAH!" Jaune took a step back and toppled to the ground. The person he was staring at was Neo. She had a light confused expression. She offered her umbrella for Jaune to take hold of to get back on his feet. About seven doors down, it opened up for a student to see Jaune and Neo. He shook his head and closed his door. _Just a person reacting to a noise._

"Please don't do that Neo." Jaune felt his heart pounding in his chest. Have a set of eyes at your face can startle most people, and Jaune was one of them. He dusted himself off.

"What brings you to this dorm?" He asked.

Neo blinked her eyes as she reached into her back pocket. She pulled out a small piece of paper. On it, there were the words. "I'm bored."

"Figures. Well I was just going to see Wolfe, you wanna come along?" Jaune offered.

Neo did a light smile as she nodded. _She must have been hoping something came up_. Jaune shook his head. Neo looked at Jaune and she had her left hand in a palm then outstretched her fingers. Then she slowly brought her hand to her face. It was a gesture to put on a mask.

"The job went well, Cinder got what she wanted, and I know there are more jobs that will come from her down the road." Jaune said as lightly and clearly as he could. There wasn't anyone close by to eavesdrop on the conversation.

Neo shrugged. She had the same umbrella as before but her coat was different. It was a semi-long trench coat. It was still colored by her iconic white, brown, and pink. The sun was going to burn bright that day, and it Jaune pondered why Neo would wear such a coat.

The two reached outside of the dorm to see a small amount of students outside as well. Most of them in casual clothing and Neo spotted Wolfe sitting down typing something on his scroll. Jaune and Neo walked up to him. Wolfe heard the footsteps of the grass and lifted his head to see his comrades.

"Good morning Neo and you too Jaune." Wolfe said as he put his scroll away.

"Morning." Jaune said as he sat down on the grass.

On the grass with Wolfe was a large brown packet. It appeared to be thick with documents. So naturally, Wolfe took a glance at it before coming outside.

"Bain pulled through for us." Wolfe stated the obvious. "I read the first dozen or so papers. The bastard in charge of the gang in that district as an asshole that calls himself 'The Commissar.' He came from the nomadic tribes with medicinal blends of dust and pain relief, so naturally he figured out a way to make it an addictive substance. With him peddling drugs into Vale, he has a small empire within the district. He's a supplier to Junior and he sells it in his nightclub for him to distribute. Luckily we already shut that place down. So now the Commissar is looking for another group to do business with him. Right now his men are being a bit more aggressive on the streets." Wolfe looked out to the courtyard. Neo was sitting beside them balancing her umbrella on her right hand. "Those four stores you hit, they're on the very edge of his supposed territory. He has a small in man power but did invest in his own private army of combat AK-39 droids. They're cheaply built but are still useful enforcers. I've seen those models and they're a bit unruly because the programming can go haywire at times. The police can't directly pin the Commissar to his drug dealing. So they haven't had the spine to really dispose of him."

"So we're going to do it for them." Jaune had a serious smirk on his face.

"It thought you would say so." Wolfe lifted himself from the grass. "Let's head to my apartment. There's no one there and we can plan this job out."

"Good plan." Jaune stood up as well. He turned to Neo. "Um, I don't know how to say this, but I'll just get this out of the way." Jaune said.

Neo blinked her eyes.

"Would you like to maybe help us with this job? I'm not sure if I can even pay you." Jaune said rubbing the back of his neck.

Neo placed her umbrella on the grass and effortlessly lifted herself up. She had her hand in closed fingers, and then waved in front of her face. Her expression changed into a devious one, then without warning, she flexed her right arm forward startling Jaune. He looked at her again, to see Neo smiling with her right hand's index finger and pinky outstretched. She was making devil horns with her hand and smiled brightly.

"So is that a yes?" Wolfe asked.

Neo nodded as she kept her hand out.

"Great. Thanks Neo." Jaune said as the group walked alongside each other. Surprisingly, Wolfe didn't live on Campus like most of the other students. So after taking a short airship ride to the city, they walked two blocks from the airship station. There was a small building that was only two floors high. There weren't any surrounding houses near it. It was isolated with it being surrounded by dying grass and dirt. Wolfe did a half-hearted smile as he looked back at the Jaune and Neo.

"Welcome to the shithole I call home." He chuckled at his own expense.

"Don't knock yourself down like that. You're training to be a Huntsman." Jaune tried to cheer him up. Wolfe just scoffed as he walked to his door. He took out his key and unlocked his door. Inside the building was a faded white painted walls, inside the carpet was decent was just stained by old age. Other than that, it was a rather nice looking home. Wolfe had a flat screen TV, a new silver fridge, two gaming consoles, and a brand new couch. The kitchen looked well-kept. Along the walls were posters of movies, games, and music band names. As well as a calendar of Faunus women in swimsuits. This month had a lioness, with a golden hair and tail as she blew a kiss toward the camera. Jaune noticed this and Wolfe immediately walked to the calendar and pulled the thumbtack out and closed it before Neo could notice it.

"I guess I'll give you guys the grand tour." Wolfe shrugged.

He led to two into a back room to see a garage. In it was an entire wall covered in tools, every kind of wrench, hammers, and screwdrivers. On the opposite wall was all of Wolfe's combat gear for the jobs as well as his mask hanging above his weapons. His H&amp;K G36 Carbine on a workbench with surrounded by tools. This was Wolfe's workhouse.

"Holy shit! You have a nice setup here." Jaune said as he looked at Wolfe.

"Really? I hate this place."

"I can't see why you feel that way." Jaune responded.

"Look, I'm on bad terms with my team and they didn't want me with them anymore. I can't just leave Vale because I'm here for my Aunt and Uncle. They expect me to become a Huntsman. So I looked around and this is closest place I could rent to the school. Now you see why I'm grateful to you on the amount you paid me. I'm ready to pay off my rent for the next eight months. So Jaune, Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me." Wolfe finished his rant.

Neo walked beside Wolfe and patted his back. "And Thank you too Neo."

"Now-I-should-tell-you-that-I-charge-20-grand-for-every-therapy-session." Jaune in a quickly as he could.

"Aw come on, can I have the Bro Code discount?" Wolfe pleaded.

Jaune sighed heavily. "Fine."

"Yeesh!" Wolfe fistpumped the air and Neo smiled at the sight. "Upstairs is just my room and two spare rooms. I couldn't pass up this location so I had to pay for the other rooms as well."

"Well you got the money now." Jaune pointed out as he walked to the workbench and checked out Wolfe's G36. "Not bad, you removed the trigger guard for a new one that has a wide opening."

"Yeah, I bought this plainly before but I my right index finger kept jamming into it after I reloaded it back at the Tasteful and train yard."

"I hate to rush, but we better figure out how we're going to take out the Commissar." Jaune pointed out.

Neo and Wolfe nodded; all of them walked into the kitchen and after twenty minutes arranging the paper work and photos, the Crew was finally ready to discuss the plan. Wolfe spent his time reading the rest of the documents as Neo and Jaune arranged the plans.

"Okay, you see this crappy looking bare bones mall?" Wolfe asked.

"Yeah what about it?" Jaune asked.

"Well, this is the place used to act as storage toward the drugs. Usually in the backrooms and in several of the stores. People enter that place without knowing what the hell is going on in the back. It looks nice because the Commissar wasted no expense to modernize the place so it won't cause suspicion. There are at least eight or so enforcers disguised as onlookers. There's an automotive shop on the second floor and use the car parts to distribute the drugs to Junior's men. The place is always clean whenever the police want to raid it. So there's some sort of system in place to quickly extract the goods. There isn't much we can do to cripple it." Wolfe leaned forward onto his kitchen table.

"This motel is a crappy place in the Aurora district of Vale. According to Bain's info, this is the place where the dust drugs are being manufactured. Along the rooms, Commissar's men are seen plainly as day. It's fortified with wooden planks along the windows of the second floor. There are a bunch of high quality cars along the parking lot. There was an informant that snuck in on Bain's behalf. He says the first floor and second floors are completely vacant of the labs and storage. So that means the entire basement system is used to hide the supplies. We need to go down there and hit them hard." Wolfe took a long breath. Talking too much was a new feeling so he went to his sink and got a cup of water.

"So any ideas?" Jaune asked.

Neo pressed her finger on the picture that was above the motel. She traced her finger on the outer perimeter of the motel. She did so two more times. Wolfe caught on to what Neo meant.

"She says that the area she traced is likely the basement. The motel is only so large but, if the basement was expanded on the land the Commissar owns."

"Then that means below the parking probably where the Commissar is hiding his product. Good catch Neo."

Neo nodded.

"So the Motel is on our hit list. Next we have the Hotel." Wolfe took out a set of photos. It was a series of images of a run-down apartment complex.

"This is the Commissar's stronghold. He resides somewhere on the middle floor. But on the bottom and top floor he has two panic rooms to hide in. Basically bank vaults with a furnished carpets and chair. There are a total of six floors, seven if you count the roof. The building was supposed to be condemned but the Commissar bought it when he set up shop in Vale. The security system there sucks donkey balls." Wolfe tossed out a picture of nothing but security cameras and man power of his droids as well as his human enforcers. Here is where we can destroy his gang at the source."

Neo stood over watching them talk. Her arms were crossed. Jaune put his hand on his chin.

"Once we capture the Commissar, his gang will crumble."

"Then someone else will seize control of his assets and continue distribution." Jaune stated.

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"We destroy the leadership and everything falls into disarray. We can't allow the worms to feast on the carcass." Wolfe was still confused on what Jaune meant. "When we attack this gang, we can't leave anything standing, when we come after them, we have to destroy the whole operation. The Mall, the motel, and the apartment complex. So we have to torch the mall. To cause enough mayhem in the right places, it'll be swarmed with cops and they get what they need to spearhead against the gang." Jaune nodded to his own thoughts. "So we have to hit all three of these places on the same day, give them no time to fortify." Jaune said he looked at his Crew. "Does that sound like a bad plan?"

"Total destruction eh? I like it." Wolfe smirked. Jaune turned to Neo. She nodded to the plan. She was relieved to know that this whole plan was going to be something worthwhile against her boredom.

"So are we in agreement?" Jaune asked for the final time.

"Count me in." Wolfe laughed. Neo did a polite bow as she drew her sword and planted it firmly on the Commissar's apartments.

"Okay then, I guess we'll work out the finer details later then." Jaune leaned away from the table.

"Oh Wolfe, I was wondering. Can you make an efficient drill that won't break down on the job?" Jaune asked.

"Can't, if I were to do that, it'll mean special ordering parts from the internet. Such parts can lead a heavy trail. As in if a drill gets captured or lost, and then we risk the entire Payday Gang being discovered." Wolfe said plainly.

"Okay, I'd thought I ask." Jaune said. After talking for a bit longer. Wolfe offered to make breakfast but Jaune was hurry to get back to the school. They've been gone for a while, and he wanted to go to the cafeteria at the school to eat with his team. So the time was 9:30 in the morning. Neo had somewhere to be. They said their goodbyes to Wolfe and returned to Vale around 10:04. Neo took off before Jaune left the airship.

He walked back to his dorm as none of the students bothered him along the way. Several snickered because of he wore a dress and so did the girls. All of them just did what the masses would normally do. Gossip. He didn't pay any attention as he entered his dorm. Ren and Nora was gone but Pyrrha was in the room in casual clothing. She had a crimson V-neck that showed of a small amount of skin, with black pants, and she had her grey athletic shoes on as well.

"Hello Jaune." Pyrrha was done getting ready for the day.

"Hey Pyrrha." Jaune walked to the main desk of the room and began to sort out his paperwork.

"How are you doing on all of that?"

"Fantastically actually. I'm all caught up on all of my classes now." Jaune smiled. He took the notebook that had all of his hidden documents of the jobs Cinder wanted him to carry out. He cursed himself for being so careless, but he did casually place it inside his backpack. What Jaune respected within his team, was the honor of privacy.

"Where's Ren and Nora?" He asked when his belongings were secured.

"In the cafeteria, getting breakfast." Pyrrha shrugged.

"Cool, you wanna meet them there?"

"Yeah, let's go." Pyrrha gather several of her basic belongings and her spear and shield were placed firmly on her back with the strap on her shoulder. The two walked out onto the hallway. Across the hall, the door was left open; Weiss held a rubber ball and rolled it forward as a small brown dog chased after it. Yang was on her bed calibrating her gauntlets, Jaune said hello them and they acknowledged him as he and Pyrrha past the door.

"You know, I really thought you were kidding about the whole dress thing." Pyrrha admitted.

Jaune felt a little embarrassed by that. "Yeah, I made a half-hearted joke, but I still have to keep my word no matter what. I was more surprised no one asked you out."

Pyrrha's expression went from a smile to gentle frown. "I believe the saying goes, there's plenty of fish in the sea."

"Ain't that the truth?" Jaune chuckled. _I wonder what Pyrrha is waiting for. Well I guess it'll work out for her eventually._

"So are we going to practice some more tonight?" Jaune asked. Since the last semester, Jaune kept getting his ass kicked because he didn't have too much formal combat training. But on what he's been up to lately, he was confident to at least stand a chance against Pyrrha.

"Yeah, we can do that tonight." Pyrrha smiled. She had a new expression on her face, as if she had a question held back but it was just answered anyway. _Odd._

The two eventually entered the cafeteria. Usually the place would open up at 8 and close at 11. It was the weekend so the hours weren't as strict. The students didn't abuse the power and Ozpin doesn't need to change it. So it all works out. At a table was Blake and Ruby with Nora and Ren.

Everyone was talking about whatever came to mind. Ruby and Blake had a couple of smiles as they talked. Whenever Nora asked what Yang was called to Ozpin's office for, neither of them gave Nora a straight answer. They talked and enjoyed their food for a while. Ren went to the library and Blake and Nora joined him to study. Nora, well she just went with them so she can nap in there because it was quiet. It was just Pyrrha and Jaune again.

"I just realized that I never asked you about the whole Cereal box thing you were on. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Sure, it was just right after I fought in my first tournament and won without losing. My parents were so proud of me, and I learned how to fight because of them. So after I had to go through the award ceremony, the company representatives sought me out. I was so caught up in the excitement, I blindly said yes. I was on the cereal box for about two months before I learned how unhealthy the cereal was. I did receive funds as payment, but I couldn't just allow my picture to be used in such a way. My parents and I refused the money and we had it be donated to the local schools. Well that's what happened in a nutshell." Pyrrha shrugged.

"Aren't you Miss Perfect." Jaune was all too familiar with the voice. He and Pyrrha looked to their left. There stood Pyrrha and Mercury. The two were calm and sat down as well.

"I remember all that happened. It was the talk of the people; you had the beauty and the skills to match. It just a pun of the local newspaper and became your mantle. 'The Goddess of Victory' as they would say in Mistral."

_What do these assholes want now?_ Jaune clenched a fist and Cinder caught on to his body language.

"So how did you come to be partnered up with Mr. Arc here?" Cinder did a light smile. The sight of it made Jaune's blood boil.

"Oh uh, I just ran into him, he needed help so I used my weapon to save him from the fall when we began the partner test. So from there, we just worked together."

"So you felt pity for him." Mercury said coldly.

"What? No." Pyrrha started to defend himself.

"I bet you saw that he was the one who threw up on the airship on the first day. I saw the pictures that a couple of students posted. So everyone must have known Jaune wasn't that great, how he was always alone. Here you see a poor lonely boy and seized your chance. I don't blame you though; he seems the type of person that can be easily manageable." Cinder continued her onslaught. "He isn't much in fight, or wits but can take a hit. So it's good to see how well you work with him."

Pyrrha had her head down as she had a new festering anger burn inside. She looked up as she was about to say something.

"Oh Pyrrha this here is Cinder and Mercury, my uhhh, other friends." Jaune did his best for this band aid solution.

As Jaune was about to say something else. Pyrrha cut him off. "You're wrong. He isn't what you say he is. Jaune Arc is the kindest person I've ever met. He comes from a proud family of sisters that gave him a heart of gold. Sure he provides false confidence, but when it comes down to it, he's the best ally in any kind of fight. The day I decided to work with him, was so I could still learn new things about myself and others. You label him as a loser, but you fail to realize his other qualities. He never goes back on his word; he cares for other people's well-being, and is a great leader. So with all of that in mind, I recommend you chose your next words VERY carefully."

"OH?" Cinder raised her eyebrow. She was about to speak until she was tugged with great force. Mercury was taken by surprise as well.

"A word please Cinder?" Jaune said as he took Cinder away from the table. He carried her along as Mercury shrugged as he turned to Pyrrha. Jaune kept dragging Cinder until the two were at the edge of the cafeteria and hide behind an isolated corner.

"What do you want?" Jaune got to the point. Cinder was still reeling from the force Jaune used on her.

"What have I told you about touching me?"

"Yeah yeah I remember. But let me answer your question with a question. What have I told you about the involvement of my team?" Jaune looked at Cinder straight in the eye.

"Like that matters. Your word is fickle to me." Cinder shoved Jaune's arm away.

"Yeah you may hate me or whatever. I'm doing what you ask of me. So all I ask is that you leave my team out of it. You still want to me assist you, fine I get that. I have a feeling you're harassing me because you're bored. Fine harass me all you want, but where my team can't see you. I really would like to enjoy today." Jaune finally caught his breath.

"It fun to see you beg. Fine, Mercury and I will go."

"Thank you." Jaune heaved for air.

"But you must accept your punishment." Cinder took hold of Jaune's left arm and pushed the clothing away for his exposed skin. In the blink of an eye, Cinder drew a knife and pierced the skin but didn't drive it into the bone, just the skin. The knife went down the wrist to the mid-point of Jaune's forearm. It was a bit surprising to Cinder. She expected him to cry out in pain, but instead he grinded his teeth and only allowed himself a soft grunt. The knife was guided to the mid-point of Jaune's forearm, and then she pulled the blade away and wiped the blood on a handkerchief from her back pocket.

"Awesome." Jaune grunted. "Are you satisfied now?" He was tempted to grab his arm to hold against the blood but didn't.

Cinder was expecting any of that to happen at all. "… I am."

"Oh yeah. Take these words into consideration. **Today I am dirty, but tomorrow I'll just be dirt**. Now excuse me." Jaune pulled the long sleeve of his button up shirt to his wrist. He walked away from Cinder he angled his arm so the blood wont drip downward. Mercury looked at Cinder and she tilted her head so he stood up.

"Until next time." Mercury nodded.

"Yeah yeah whatever." Pyrrha was looking at Jaune who had a big smile on his face. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah of course it is. Cinder was sent here on a dare, she has an amazing poker face and has a pretty tough exterior.

"That sounds like a mean dare to me." Pyrrha was in no way convinced by his excuse." He sat down and started to stuff his face with a pancake. After a good 10 seconds, he then had his cut arm on the table and with his fork, then he plunged it into his hand and turned to his side and dragged the fork along the skin. By then Jaune's clothes showed the blood seeping through his clothes.

"What is it Jaune?" Pyrrha asked.

"I just cut myself on accident." Pyrrha noticed the blood and she took hold of his arm.

"You need to monitor your hand." Pyrrha glanced toward Cinder. She knew something was up. She didn't express that though for her concern of Jaune's injury.

"Yeah I need to. Can we do to the infirmary now?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Pyrrha glanced back at Cinder. The two locked eyes for a moment, neither side back down as they were cut off from looking at each when Pyrrha and Jaune passed through the main doors.

"Sorry Cinder, this tactic usually works with Emerald, I'll keep trying to force Pyrrha to fight me." Mercury rubbed the back of his head. He was ordered by Cinder to fight Pyrrha to see if she was threat to them. It went down this way, because Jaune prevented Mercury back on the weapon's training day.

"We'll acquire the information at a later point. We tried and failed. We just need to adjust our strategy." Cinder kept looking toward the doorway of where Jaune and Pyrrha left through.

"Yeah you're right." Mercury noticed that Cinder wasn't looking at him.

_Why would someone put themselves through so much hardship for other beings? This is a world that functions on those adept in intelligence and strength. Which Jaune has neither._ Cinder kept pondering the thought.

"Hello, Cinder?" Mercury asked again.

_There is something I do not understand. I'll just look into what Jaune said earlier._

"Cinder." Mercury said for the fifth time.

Cinder looked at Mercury. "I heard you."

The two left the cafeteria and proceed with their day. Meanwhile Jaune and Pyrrha made it to the infirmary. He was bandaged up. When it was finally done. Jaune had nice bit of tape on his arm as the cut was hidden by his sleeve which had a small amount of blood.

"Why do you hang out with them?" Pyrrha asked when Jaune got to his feet.

"I really don't know. They just have tough exteriors, they needed someone and I'm just helping them get settled in. Mercury can be a pretty nice guy when you get to know him." Jaune answered with bits of the truth.

"If you say so." Pyrrha raised her right eyebrow.

From there, the two spent the day just talking with one another. She talked of her days in training, and Jaune talked about his sisters. It wasn't long until the two were on the roof, with their weapons drawn. Jaune had his shield fully extended and his sword was by his side.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Pyrrha asked as she braced her sword.

"I am, just don't take it easy on me." Jaune replied. As soon as he said that, both of them charged forward for their swords to clash together. They trained for a good two hours that night.

**Wow another long chapter. I need to moderate myself on these. Well I hope you guys liked this chapter. I know this one was pretty RWBY centered but the next one is a heist. The Hotline Miami job at that, I'm excited for I have in store. Oh yeah, I mentioned my announcement.**

**I think it should be time when I offer something to have you the readers become involved a bit in the story. So I am going to do something called "Preplanning." Unoriginal I know. What the Preplanning will be is me offering several bits of extra stuff to happen in the heist for the Payday Gang in action. Such as being able to hack the cameras, bring extra gear, or do something special for the heist. So you, the readers, vote for what Preplanning item you wish to see in the heist.**

"**I vote for Option 1, 2, 3, and etc." (This is just an example) This is how I want you to cast your votes.**

**Edit: The voting has been closed. I'm leaving this up to show what people are talking about from the reviews and to act as an example to my future chapters. Again, voting has been closed.**

_**You vote through the Reviews or PMs, you only get ONE vote per Option.**_

**Even if you don't have an account, you can still leave a review.**

**Whatever option has the most votes, will be selected and I will say which option will appear in the chapter in my AU of that chapter.**

**So, with that. I'm offering Preplanning for the Motel portion of the Heist. The options are:**

**Option 1.**The Battering ram/ Sledgehammer**. Since the Motel has boarded up doors and window, one Member will be forced to hold a Sledgehammer and break the doors down, and maybe use it as a weapon.**

**Option 2.**Plastic explosives**. The crew will use these weapons to blow the concrete away of the Basement to get down there faster. The Crew could use the explosives for other things as well.**

**Option 3.**An Overwatch Sniper**. Jaune will call in a professional Sniper to provide cover fire when the Crew assaults the Motel. The sniper will provide helpful dialogue during the heist. This sniper will be a RWBY universe character, and I already have a character to be the sniper. It's not Cinder by the way.**

**I'm just testing this idea out to see if this could be manageable. So if this goes well, then I'll offer it on more heists. But NOT****every single heist.**

**When you do leave a vote, please tell me what you think, like, and offer constructive criticism. I want to know what you people think besides the ones who already reviewed. Not that I'm not grateful, I'm ecstatic to those who already do.**

**This is my way of saying Thank you to those who are reading. Now time for the Response Corner.**

**Gamerandartist35: **Well this is a pretty big secret to keep from close friends. So we'll have to wait and see. As for the Triangle, I don't want to give away too much. Have a nice day.

**Noice:** Noice!

**Operator Blake 'Roxasrock': **Thank you so much for reading. As for the Ship we all have to wait and see. The Dance was surprisingly difficult to write for because I don't want my story to replicate the show way too much.

**AnAustrilianGamer: **Thank you for reading.

**MightyPrussia: **Thank you very much for reading. I already have several characters in mind to introduce at some point in the story. I think you'll like this heist a lot as well. (Wink, Wink) Thank you for making the review sound like an option than an order. Have a very awesome day.


	13. Chapter 13, Do You Know What Time It Is?

**Boom, I'm back. I'm pleasantly surprised by the reaction toward the Preplanning thing I test. Speaking of that, the winner is… Option 3. I guess the allure of a character asset to the Payday Crew was a little too tempting. There will be a whooping amount of 3 songs for this chapter. "**Ready Set Destroy**" from the Twisted Metal Soundtrack, "**Roller Mobster**" by Carpenter Brut, and "**On the Run**" by Garth Knight. You may have to press repeat on the songs. Don't listen to the last two until their part of it starts please? I put a lot of thought into them for this heist. Now that it is out of the way, Ladies and gentlemen, let us continue.**

**Song one:** ** watch?v=ehT6TSOuXgY**

**Song two: watch?v=qyfJlcrN09w**

**Song three:** ** watch?v=y3G96pZ4w9U**

"CRAP CRAP CRAP!" Jaune shouted as he ducked his head down. In front of him stood three AK-39s, and each of them looked like old metal frames of a human exoskeleton, the helmets of the machines were the generic faceless lenses. The fire sparked down the hall.

Jaune drew his shield and sword. He dashed forward, having his shield at his shoulder and leaning his head in. He charged forward as the bullets smacked against the shield. Jaune was shouting to himself as he pressed on his assault.

As he knocked over the first droid out the way, he pierced his sword into the exposed neck portion of the droid and lifted the helmet to be severed from the torso. As it was being lifted he then brought the sword and lifted the head to be tossed toward the second. As he looked forward, he was at the barrel of a gun.

When Jaune saw the abyss of the black, a figure circled around him and it was decked in the helmet. Jaune heaved for air as he looked back toward the hallway. Above, Neo was providing cover from the motel along with the sniper on a nearby rooftop.

Jaune looked to his right to see Wolfe fire a round into the helmet of the droid. He turned around.

"I owe you one." Jaune laughed to himself.

"You would have had it covered." Wolfe offered a hand for Jaune. "I told you we should have gone with the explosives."

"Well, the sniper is helping just as much."

"Hey fuckwits, hurry up." The sniper said in a snarky tone.

"I really hate her." Wolfe said before he pressed the button his comms.

"Good for you." Jaune pressed the button for his comms. "We copy."

"Great, now hurry up. I've spotted two vans coming in from the west. Most likely enforcers." The sniper bolted another round out of the rifle.

"Come on, before the cops show up." Wolfe checked the clip to his G36.

Jaune lowered his sword and holstered it back into his shield. He lifted his Knights SR 10; the weapon was very impractical because of the narrow hallways under the motel. He raised it and turned to Wolfe. He understood he was going to have to be point man. The two formed up as Wolfe hugged the wall to his right while Jaune did the left. The two inched closer and closer until, the two aimed toward the opposite side criss crossing to check the hall. Since it was clear, Jaune and Wolfe nodded and placed their backs on their perspective wall and peaked from cover. There was no one waiting to shoot them.

The two knew that they were running out of time. Wolfe noticed his hallway had more light in his direction. He didn't turn away as he kept aimed down the hall and with his right foot he lifted it then tapped the heel of Jaune. It was their way of signaling each other.

"I don't see anyone coming towards you guys at the moment."

"Great. Neo, come down here and give us a hand. Go down the very end of the hall and turn left. You clear out that side, while Wolfe and I do the opposite."

"I see her moving in." The sniper mentioned.

Jaune turned around as his rifle was pointed down the hall. The two pressed on and flicked the lights to see it turn on and there was a wide open room with crates all around. There were weapons and assorted drugs. Down the hall to his right, there was a black figure and moved outside of his vision by a corner. Jaune saw it and reacted. Wolfe caught on and kept watch, and continued down his side. Jaune inched closer and closer to the corner of the figure. It was then he found a several makeshift cells. Metal bars and dim lighting. He took a step forward.

At the same moment, the room that Wolfe was in was short and circled around to the same cells Jaune was in. He took a step forward as well. As the two looked at each other, they looked back at the cell. A set of hands appeared form inside and took hold of the bars. Jaune walked up to the cell.

"Who are you?" Wolf asked.

2 hour earlier

It has been four days since Jaune had the incident with Cinder back at the cafeteria. After that, Pyrrha did was Jaune insisted on preventing to confront Cinder until she absolutely needed to. Wolfe, Neo, and Jaune were rested, trained, and mentally prepared for the long night that awaited them. It was 6:37 pm; the orange glow of the sun was beating down on the city.

Jaune stood outside of the store he met the Faunus man. Next to him stood Wolfe, the area seemed fine, no cops nor people. The China shop still had the girl Jaune met before still working there. He took a moment, and then he looked at Wolfe. He entered the store and grabbed a nice selection of snacks and drinks, then walked to the register.

The Faunus man smiled as he moved the picture he had of him and his wife into a section of the wall that would always be in the sunlight. He turned to Jaune.

"Why hello, did you find everything to be your liking?" The man named Mr. Cloud asked. Here he was in the cleanest clothes any person could be in. Here he smiled and was eager to hear Jaune's words.

"Everything's fine" Jaune said as he put the snacks on the counter.

"Okie doke." Mr. Cloud started to scan the stuff Jaune was planning to buy.

"I just wanted to come here to ask for help." Jaune said without beating around the bush. Mr. Cloud wasn't sure of what Jaune meant, so he pursed his lips and frowned slightly.

"I'm sure you remember me." Jaune said as he lifted his satchel and pulled out his mask slightly. Mr. Cloud looked at it and his expression changed to calm.

"There is a gang in this area. I plan to rid them of their tyranny for you and the good people. But I can't do that without a person's ear to the ground. When we attack their headquarters, we are going to need a place to also hide out as well." Jaune pushed his mask back into his bag.

"Okay… but why tell me this?" Mr. Cloud asked.

"I'm asking for you to be that person." Jaune said blankly. There was no one else in the convenience store besides Wolfe at the entrance.

"Say no more, I'm your man." Mr. Cloud smiled and nodded.

Now it was Jaune's turn to be surprised. "Are you sure about this, because I don't know what the future may contain, and I'll be sure to pay you."

"No need, in my eyes, you and your people are heroes. I'll wave that banner because I stand firmly in what I believe in." Mr. Cloud had a serious expression. "To what you're doing, count me in."

Jaune offered his right hand, and Mr. Cloud took it without hesitating and smiled at Jaune. "I have other matters to attend to, so my partner Wolfe here will talk to you to work out the details." Jaune pointed out. "Let me talk to him first."

Jaune walked through the store and stood near the doorway. "He's in."

"Good, but how do you know we should trust him, he knows our faces now." Wolfe had his arms crossed as he was looking out into the street.

"I know that risk, but I don't want to be on Cinder's leash forever on that phone. I want my own list of contacts that I can trust. You're part of that list." Jaune said the last bit because he meant it.

"Thanks man." Wolfe did a light smile as he turned to his right.

"I need you to talk to him, figure out what he's good at and how to best utilize his abilities. He's now part of my Crime Network." Jaune stated.

"Crime net? That sounds catchy." Wolfe uncrossed his arms.

"I know right, I thought of it last night." Jaune laughed. "Alright man, you got your task; I got to go downtown to speak to our sniper contact." Jaune and Wolfe fist bumped. Wolfe turned around to enter the store. Jaune crossed the street to meet up with Neo who stood on the opposite side.

"Let's go." Jaune said. Neo drew her umbrella and extended it so it would open up to catch the sunlight.

Wolfe watched as his crew left the area. He looked to his right to Mr. Cloud. Wolfe never had any ill will toward Faunus people, the reason being that he doesn't judge people off face value, but in the actions they do in life. If Jaune can trust him, Wolfe would follow that example. He took a bottle of soda from the stand then stood at the register. Mr. Cloud looked at him and did a light smile. Wolfe was still a law abiding citizen when he wants to be. He paid for his drink before the two continued with their business.

"Okay Mr. Cloud. I know this may have been sprung on you out of nowhere, but I need to know in what regards you could help us." Wolfe got to the point before he twisted the cap off his soda bottle.

"I'm glad you asked, come with me." Mr. Cloud nodded. He walked around the register and led Wolfe to the back alleyway; the sun was directly above them as a shiny metal door was gleaming off the sunlight. Mr. Cloud took out a key, and then he unlocked the hatch and opened it up. Inside was a pit of darkness but he walked down inside it and turned a light on. Wolfe walked downstairs, it was a store room. There were boxes of assorted food, but nothing really consumed the whole space. It was about a 5 meters long and 4 meters in width. Here it could be a good place for anyone to hide out, and possibly store something. Wolfe just whistled at the sight.

"Are you still sure about this?" Wolfe asked.

"I'm happy to know that you guys are still concerned over my well-being. Don't even worry about it. I'm not sure how you guys are emotionally, but I'm just a middle aged man waiting to die and I don't have the stones to actually kill myself." Mr. Cloud looked down to the concrete floor. "Doing something like this is giving my life meaning again, so don't be sorry around me, you're helping me just as much as I'm helping you."

"Sounds like a plan." Wolfe shook Mr. Cloud's hand. The two started to discuss the future endeavors of the group.

9 Blocks away, a coffee shop

Neo and Jaune sat down and were drinking coffee. Jaune never really drank coffee because he doesn't see the need to, unlike Neo on the other hand, she hated coffee. She stood on the opposite side of the street to provide over watch for Jaune.

It was that last night, Jaune called a sniper who offers her own services at a modest fee. But this sniper doesn't like to do things indirectly and likes to talk to her employers rather than do it over the phone. Ironic since the person who's being sought out is a sniper.

Jaune took hold of his drink and sipped it. It was here, the condition was to wait for the contact by ordering a black coffee, with two scoops of milk, and with foam on the top. It was a signal in a way.

"Oh hello, you're Jaune right?" A feminine voice called from above. Jaune and Neo looked up.

"There are two worlds to identify oneself in a mirror." The voice spoke from above.

"To which I have to determine which is the real me." Jaune replied to the girl. The girl smiled a sinister grin.

"So you're the moron that called me last night."

Jaune shrugged. "Call me what you will, but I am ready to pay for your services."

The girl raised her chin, after thinking for a moment, she nodded to Jaune. "You've captured my interest." The girl sat down on the opposite end of the table. Jaune took a sip of his coffee.

"My payment is 10,000 lien up front, and 20,000 when it's over. Remember, I don't do assassinations or cover ups. Just provide over watch." The girl got the point. No one was currently outside the coffee shop to eavesdrop.

"Done." Jaune reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. The girl took it and read the paper. It was the street location, and overview of her target. She already explained to Jaune on the phone of what her conditions are. Not that much of it mattered to Jaune; he just wants to keep the members of the crew alive.

"Be at that location in an hour and a half. The job is being done tonight." Jaune took his coffee and consumed the last of it. It burned his throat but didn't want to waste the drink.

"Fine." Jaune stood up and nodded to his contact.

"Thanks for doing this, and I always knew there was something different about you Velvet." Jaune said as he noticed the left ear of the girl twitched. She was a Faunus girl with rabbit ears, and was an upperclassman of Beacon by one year.

"Right back at you Jaune." Velvet Scarlatina took the paper and placed inside her pocket. There was an envelope with 10 thousand lien inside. She took the money and nodded. Jaune walked away from the table and didn't bother looking at Neo, but she understood what happened and started to walk away in the opposite direction.

"All the assets are in place." Jaune said to himself as he crossed the street.

One Hour Later

Jaune, Wolfe, and Neo were dressed in their suits but all of their gear was in duffle bags, they would have to get dress for the job in the Van. The team had to walk to a vacant parking lot free from cameras so they could enter the van. Twitch was eager to move as the team entered. Jaune was in the back along with the crew.

"So Mr. Cloud can be trusted right?" Wolfe asked again for the third time.

"This will determine so, if not," Jaune looked at Neo. "We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it, okay?" Jaune said as he walked to the front door.

"Fine." Wolfe replied unconvinced.

Their driver Twitch had a smile on his face; it went from ear to ear. Jaune sat down and leaned back. Wolfe and Neo sat on opposite sides of each other.

"We ready to go kiddies?" Twitch said in his sarcastic tone. Jaune passed him an envelope to his shoulder. He took the envelope to see the same amount of money Twitch requested, and he nodded.

"You can count on me boss." Twitch said as he turned the ignition of the van and the engine complied with the request. He was bit disappointed from his payment but Jaune was paying a fair wage and he wouldn't complain about.

"Sure thing Twitch." Jaune leaned back. When he did, the crew wasted no time at all to start dressing up in the body armor, pockets, and Wolfe shouldered two charges of dust explosives. It was pretty potent and was part of a deal from a weapons smuggler from a man named Gage. He was handicapped but sold an armory's worth of weapons and never speaks a word of it. He was one the phone that Jaune could call so the crew had to update their weaponry.

Rather than just stocking up with buck shots for her Umbrella shotgun, Neo was also given a small reserve of Slugs. Basically a bullet in a shotgun shell. She understood the need to carry such ammunition. She was also tasked to carry two ECM jammers for the job. As for her emergency weapon, she was given four concussion grenades in case the situation gets hairy. She was rather okay with her loadout as she strapped her body armor. She even decorated the body armor to be of similar color to her suit. Jaune didn't care; it just proved to him that she was truly involved in what they were doing.

Wolfe on the other hand needed very little to be changed. His elbow and knee guards were still there, as well as his body armor and thigh armor. What was different was that he bought four dust fragmentation grenades from Gage. He really wanted to get the plastic explosives but Jaune had the final say on the budget. _I wanted to blow shit up, but no, a sniper was more important._ Wolfe thought as he secured his knee guards. His G36 was modded with new parts of a EOTech holographic sight along with a retractable stock to ease his shoulder while firing his weapon. On his back was very fucking heavy ammo bag, full of a dozen or so clips for their weapons. Six for Jaune, six for Wolfe, and 20 shells for Neo. He lost the coin toss on who carries the ammo bag. He chuckled to himself as he geared up.

Jaune didn't have much in ways of armor besides the one he has under his dress shirt and his sword and shield on his legs. He had a small satchel on his back which housed his mask for the job. He was armed with a .45 ACP Hardballer pistol with two clips of ammo, to his side. The Van stopped a block away and Jaune exited the van. It was clear from onlookers and he started to casually walk toward the mall. He was the one to walk inside and scout out the place, but he stood there at the front door. The van moved to a different location and Wolfe had the job of messing with the security.

After a minute, Wolfe spoke up over the radio. "The cameras are out, you have 2 minutes to move."

"Roger that." Jaune walked through the front doors and didn't act suspicious and the people carried on with their business. Jaune walked up an escalator staircase and spotted three of Commissar's men huddle together having a meal. All of them laughing and talking loudly. This made the job a whole lot easier. When he got the top of the stairs, he continued to walk through the mall.

All the place had was 12 stores, a food court with 3 places to eat, a gym and an automotive shop with car parts over real cars. Jaune continued to walk through as he walked along the wall and made it the janitor's closet of in a corner of the mall.

"I'm in." Jaune twisted the knob and the door opened up. The security at this place sucks.

"Got it." Wolfe said as he finished messing with the connection grid to the security cameras. He was there ready for a permanent blackout, when Jaune makes his move. Neo was in the van ready to be called upon.

Jaune stood in the janitor's closet and quickly got to work in undressing himself but flipped his suit around was a reversible suit to wear. He came in with black suit, but now, he has cyan-blue suit to do the job. He opened his satchel and put his mask on. "I'm ready."

Wolfe and Neo knew what that meant. Wolfe did some final touches to the security grid and all the cameras were being jammed and were set to erase the data. He tugged his mask on, and so the van zoomed to the front of the mall and the doors burst open with Neo walking out of the van and it drove off into the distance.

**Play Song One**

"Good luck guys." Twitch said as his part was done.

Wolfe and Neo were completely ready in their gear as they aimed their weapons toward the two people who stood outside the mall. A woman screamed from the lobby. It distracted the people attending the mall.

The men huddled together looked up to see Wolfe aiming his rifle at them. He unloaded several rounds for them to topple over. Each of them was twitching out because of the non-lethal dust shock rounds Wolfe had in the clip. So that way, the guards won't be killed but still put down. They were shocked to the point of their bodies shutting down. The bullets wedged into them would deliver a jolt every 30 or so seconds. So they WILL stay down.

Wolfe turned to the people. "On the GROUND!" Neo was securing the people in the lobby with zip ties. So when Wolfe climbed up the escalator he saw Crescent kneeling down above a security guard. It was here that he noticed the other guards were put down as well. The people were screaming and started to hide. There were about twenty people in the mall.

Crescent knew he missed several people, and the call must have been made to the police. So he was prepared for it. He stood up and walked to the main door wall where Bain said is a hidden room of the Commissar's drugs. It was here that Crescent pulled out a small dust thermal paste. He placed it on the wall.

"Fire in the hole!" He stood behind a pillar and there it was. Crates upon crates of drugs. It was enough for any police force to gear up to fight someone. Wolfe walked into the stores and Neo did the same and she started to tie up more hostages. Crescent walked up a second set of escalators to the third floor to see people ducking their heads down.

"Alright Bile, make your approach." Crescent said.

"I hear ya, be there in seven minutes." Bile replied.

Crescent turned to the other people; three of them were huddled together behind a counter of a small Jewelry store.

"Get on the ground." Crescent stated it was here that Bain had the plans state that a list of distribution is hidden in a safe in the back counter. Crescent pulled on the man in a suit.

"Open it." Crescent ordered.

"You kidding? The man who owns this place will kill me." The man pleaded. The moment he finished the Hardballer of Crescent was placed firmly on the forehead of the man.

"I'm going to kill right now if you don't. Be smart." Crescent ordered. The man sighed and started to twist the lock combination the safe and it popped open. A series of documents was there along with 5 thousand lien wrapped in a stack. Crescent grabbed both and he pocketed the money and proceeded to zip tie the three people. None of them resisted.

Wolfe walked into a shoe store and the employee was ducking behind the desk. She was scared out of her mind. Wolfe approached her and she screamed her head off. Wolfe fired a bullet into a shoe box and she stopped screaming.

"Thank you." Wolfe zip tied her. He lifted her up and guide her out of the store so no one would be inside. He walked back in and began to type into the computer to see if there was any important information on file. He stared to type away.

Neo walked up to the same floor level as Wolfe and Crescent was above her. She walked past the stores with a can of gasoline. She walked into the store where the people were gone and poured it on the clothes the store was selling.

The store wasn't really relevant to the objective but Crescent wanted it down so that way the police can keep searching the mall. The cosmetics store there was to be untouched since Bain couldn't find anything there that was needed to be exposed. Neo was supposed to prove support on the floor so she stood on standby.

Wolfe finished his hacking of the computer to find a dozen or so manifests of the what the mall was really peddling and Wolfe smiled under his mask. "I've got some juicy info on display."

"Same here, come help me on the next floor." Crescent ordered. Wolfe grabbed his weapon and started to sprint up the stairs to get to Crescent. He stood outside the Jewelry store to see two bags worth of jewelry. It would help provide a cover up when the cops show up.

Speaking of cops there was the sound of sirens coming from outside and around the mall. They needed to act faster.

"Get the China store." Crescent ordered.

"Okay." Wolfe sprinted into the store and clerk was crouched down protecting her face. He dragged her out and tied her down. With the store empty, Wolfe took out one of his grenades. He tossed it into the store. After five seconds, the glass windows shattered from the vibration and force. Several pots and other fragile objects were broken as well.

"This area is clear."

BAM BAM BANG.

The sounds of bullets breaking into the lobby. Neo was fighting off the first squad of droids. "That's the warning bell." Crescent stated as he shouldered the two bags of jewelry. He sprinted across to a small bridge overlooking the lobby of where Neo was located. He took out his pistol and started to aim very carefully and fired three rounds to stop a droid form hitting Neo. He dropped the two bags on the bridge. He didn't have the ammo so he holstered his pistol and drew his sickle blade and shield. Crescent jumped form the bridge to land near Neo.

Her umbrella was opened all the way as the droid fired a round at her to be halted. She blasted the shotgun to crack the visor of the droid as it fell backward. Crescent's sword swiped the air and was supported by Neo.

"We got the wave; just apply the last phase Wolfe!" Crescent shouted.

"Copy that!" Wolfe shouted back as he pulled the pin of another grenade to toss into an electronics store. The people were lead outside it before he did so. He sprinted across to an open doorway into the back rooms of the place. Since all the guards were out into the open and taken down, he didn't have any resistance in walking to the back room.

"I'm just doing the finishing touches." Wolfe stated.

"Be there in 3 minutes be ready." The Airship pilot was making his approach.

Crescent slashed to his right to sever a droid, and thrust to his left and pulled backward for the inner circuitry of the droid to spill out. It did it's best to hold onto the wires but it shut down from the dangerous change.

Neo finished her second load of her shotgun and needed to reload, Badly. She grunted and Crescent knew what that meant. He drew his shield up and held it like a riot shield to fire several rounds of his pistol. Neo crouched down and loaded four shells and pumped the shotgun back for the first round to enter the chamber.

Two droids smashed the skylight above and jumped down to face against the Payday Gang. Jaune did a horizontal slash and then a vertical one to split a droid in the middle and separate in half. Crescent stood tall and looked to his right. Before another machine could kill him, a wall of brown and pink appeared and the machine was blasted in the center. Neo drew her sword and tag teamed with Crescent, watching each other's back.

"Guys, I'm done heading out from the back." Wolfe sad as his last grenade exploded and marked the last place for the police to search.

"Hurry up." Crescent stated as the ducked down behind a pillar. In the distance, droids sporting riot shields were lining up from the outside, as well as a new wave of gun wielders. Neo and Crescent had to retreat from the lobby to the top escalator.

Wolfe walked out from the doorway he entered and noticed the two bags on the bridge. The hostages were all scattered but were unharmed. All of them unable to move until someone removes the ties. Not that Wolfe would do that.

"30 seconds, crew." Bile stated. A loud rumbling noise was emanating from above. Neo and Crescent heard it and booked it since they weren't in the line of fire of the new wave.

"Alright I'm here, let's roll people." Bile stated as three ropes come from the airship above. Wolfe secured himself on the clips and placed his foot on the bottom of the rope. It had place to help someone hold on. Wolfe had both the bags on his shoulder. Neo and Crescent in record time put on their ties for the rope.

"We're ready!" Wolfe shouted.

With that, the rope retracted and within seconds, the crew was lifted to the airship. The police didn't react fast enough and couldn't shoot at them. The Payday Gang escaped the mall. Jaune heaved for air as Wolfe was cheering in a different language. Some sort of song of a country whenever someone wins.

The rope was retracted completely as the bay doors of the airship opened up and the team was pulled in. Crescent and the crew untied themselves from the rope. Neo didn't sit down right away, but she started to load her shotgun fully. Wolfe walked to the closest seat to catch his breath.

**The Song should end here**

"Alright people, the next stop will be at the shitty motel place. ETA, 3 minutes." Bile spoke into the intercom. Crescent removed his mask and Jaune wiped his forehead.

"Out-fucking-standing crew. We made that mall out bitch. Let's do the same for the motel." Jaune said as he started to strap on his armor over his suit. He was able to get his Knight's SR 10 back and started to strap on his pockets. In a matter of minutes, Jaune was fully armored with body armor, forearm guards, and knee guards. His thigh and arms had strap on gear as he was fully armored like when he did the very first job back at the bank. On his left hip, was a small ammo bag, but it wasn't as stocked as the one Wolfe carried, because Jaune was already weighed down by his gear.

The new bits of stuff Jaune was carrying was a new EOTech Blue dot sight on his weapon. He was also prepared with three concussion dust flash grenades like Neo. Now he was fully ready for the task ahead.

Wolfe drunk two bottles of water completely and crushed the bottles.

"Alright we're here." Bile said.

The team was resupplied and ready to move out. "We got this people." Jaune stated before he pulled down his mask to his face. The airship lowered itself close to a vacant roof and the doors opened up as the crew moved own and took cover. Crescent looked out and no one was shooting at them.

"Alright we're clear." Crescent stood up. Bile's airship lifted up into the clouds.

"I'm on stand-by signal me when you're ready to go." Bile did a light salute to the Payday Gang.

"Roger that." Wolfe responded. The crew we all prepped and ready to go. Crescent placed his hand over his earpiece.

"Sniper, you ready to roll?"

"I got you in my sights, if that's what you mean." Velvet snickered on her comms. Crescent shook his head. The Crew was currently on a rooftop that overlooked the motel and was across the street. In the distance, none of the gangsters took notice of the airship, it was already dark. The purple glow of the sky was pokadotted with black clouds above.

"Oh, I like her already." Wolfe chuckled.

"We're ready to move. Are you using the rounds I requested?" Crescent asked.

"Yeah, I got he electro dust bullets, you're already sucking the fun outta this." Velvet rolled her eyes as she peered through her scope. "I've spotted four guards along the motel, but judging from the dozen cars parked there, we've got about a dozen guards above the ground. AK-39s are on standby and will activate when things get loud."

"Got it, thanks Sniper." Wolfe added. Neo slung her umbrella over her right shoulder.

Crescent moved his hand away from his ear. He signaled the crew to move out. Wolfe pulled back the chamber of his G36. The team already was prepared for his rooftop as there was a fire escape on along the side that led down into an alley. After making it down and huddled together, the crew was ready to move out.

"Don't move yet. A guard is looking in your general direction." Velvet pointed out. The guard was having a cigarette and puffed out a ball of smoke. After a grueling 12 seconds, the guard looked to his right as he was called out by another guard to look at something.

"You're clear to move." Velvet spoke in a light tone. The crew didn't waste any time as they sprinted across the street.

"There are two guards to your left. Watch out." Velvet warned them. Crescent spotted them out and the crew ducked behind an outer wall of the motel. The objective was that the team to move the middle of the motel, there should be a trap door to lead down stairs like what Bain's informant told him.

The crew needed to hit it hard and fast, because of the potential reinforcements of the police and gang could arrive. There should be more stuff inside for the gang to mark and display for the cops to get the evidence needed to take this gang down.

"Take cover, a van is heading our way." Velvet said rapidly but clearly. The crew immediately sprinted on the opposite side that was a car and the crouched behind it as the van drove in to the parking lot. It took the long way around so it couldn't notice the Payday Gang. The back doors burst open and out walk two droids and two henchmen. They wore white suits with purple undershirts. They were having a grand old time talking to the men.

**Play the Second Song now please, it has a long intro.**

During that moment, the crew moved to the wall of the motel again. They were located at the southeast corner and had to move up to the room with the doorway. Crescent was to move along the top route to provide cover fire while Neo and Wolfe moved up to clear a path and secure the nearby rooms.

"We're in position now..." Crescent had his hand to his ear. A street lamp was flickering on the parking lot. He took a deep breath before he gave the order. "…Fire."

A guard was hit and fell to the ground. Then there was an echo. The crew sprang into action. Wolfe and Neo fired several rounds and two more guards were knocked down. Crescent ran along the wall and found a ladder to get the second floor; he climbed as fast as he could. When he got to the top, a barrel of a gun was waiting for him.

The guard smiled but it faded after there was a cracking sound. It was a bullet and the guard was stunned and fell to his right. His back was twitching and he rested with his head down. _Thank you for using the bullet type_.

"You're welcome." Velvet said as she bolted the bullet out of her rifle. The shell rung as it bounced on the concrete.

Crescent nodded as he lifted himself over the railing. He hugged the wall. His weapon was ready to be used. As he inched closer to the edge.

"Wait a moment; a guy is on your opposite side." Velvet took the shot and missed.

The bullet frightened the guard and ducked his head down. When he did, he was shot by Crescent who was peeking from cover. Crescent moved to his right and kicked a door in to clear it out. Velvet adjusted her sight for Wolfe and Neo. The two were in a slugging match with a group of guards.

The shrapnel of the car was breaking into shards. Wolfe was kind glad for the mask, otherwise, they're faces would be irritated by the shards in the air. Those kinds of distractions could get someone killed.

Wolfe had his back to a car as Neo fired her shotgun at the AK-39s. Wolfe loaded a new clip into his weapon. Then as he lifted his rifle and aimed. As soon as he did, a bullet struck Wolfe's upper left shoulder and it twisted him around and he leaned against the car.

"Sonvabitch!" He moaned. Wolfe unhinged a grenade from his bet and pulled the pin from it. "Oh yeah?" He cooked the grenade for 3 seconds. "Here's one for you!" Wolfe shouted as he tossed the grenade toward the droids. The guards nearby noticed and scattered. Leaving them to be picked off by Wolfe and Velvet. The grenade exploded with a small puff of fire from the dust grenade.

"These rooms are clear!" Crescent shouted as he appeared from the floor above looking over the parking lot. The flashes of light was blinking all around and Crescent crouched down and fired six rounds toward the men below. The last one was keeping his head down behind two closely parked cars.

"Last one." Wolfe shouted.

"I can't get a shot." Velvet shouted. The reason why she said that was because the windows were darkly tinted and obstructed her view.

Crescent noticed this as he didn't get a clean shot off. But, he did have a shot to the window of the car on his rear where Velvet was aiming from. Crescent fired two bullets and the window shattered. It was a good two seconds until a crack of a gun-shot could be heard.

"He's down."

"Good." Crescent ejected a clip from his rifle. "Provide cover fire. We're about to breach the place." Crescent pointed out as he walked to the staircase of the railing where he climbed from. There was a shot stair case below where he was. It lead to Neo and Wolfe as they moved to a new position.

The two were stacked up to the room which housed the doorway. Crescent was watching outside. Neo blasted the hinges of the doorway and Wolfe used his leg to break the door down, Neo tossed a concussion grenade inside and when the BANG came the two rushed inside. It was nothing but a huddle of drug addicts and the only gang member was in the corner with his hands in the air.

"Smart move." Wolfe said as he zip tied the member. Neo chased the addicts out. There really was a trap down in the room. What happened was that Neo was carrying more thermal dust paste so they could break into the lower floors.

"Everything still looks clear outside. You better hurry up." Velvet stated.

"You know, this could be moving a lot faster if we brought some _explosives_." Wolfe emphasized the word.

"Oh get over it!" Crescent said as he walked into the room. The past burned through the metal entrance. It fell open and before the team could enter.

"Eyes up people. More guards and droids exposed themselves from their rooms." Velvet said as she fired a round to knock a guard down.

"Understood." Crescent stated. "Neo go outside and keep them at bay. We don't know what's down there, so Wolfe and I are going down there."

Neo did a simple nod and hugged the wall before she sprinted outside.

"Listen Velvet, Neo's life in your hands now. Keep her covered no matter what." Crescent said into the comms.

"I hear you, now move!" Velvet ejected her clip and slammed a new on in and bolted the rifle for the next round. She was in her element, because her entire focus was at its potential. It's a fact that the Faunus can see at night. So for Velvet, she was entirely prepared.

Wolfe and Crescent aimed their weapons as the two walked down the steps. Jaune was the first to cross an opening into a hallway. When he took cover, bullets started to blast at him.

"CRAP CRAP CRAP!" Jaune shouted as he ducked his head down.

**This is the part from the intro, and the Second song should end now**

"Who are you?" Wolfe asked.

The two walked up to see a young man. He had a light blue t-shirt on, and had a pair of blue jeans. His hands were also wrapped in boxing tape. He had a pair of black sneakers on his feet. His face had a blank expression and he was entirely calm by the sight of Jaune and Wolfe. He had not facial hair, and his brunette hair was kept short. He blinked as he waved at the two of them.

"I wasn't expecting this." Crescent looked to his right at Wolfe.

The young man didn't speak, but he pointed his right index finger and signaled the lock to his cell.

"I think he wants us to free him?" Crescent said.

"Should we?" Wolfe gave his honest thought.

"No, the cops will pick him up." Crescent said as he looked around the room.

"You're probably right." Wolfe nodded. "We better hurry to get rid of the Commissar."

The pair of hands gripped both the bars and shook it. The young man opened his mouth, but no words came out then he pointed behind Jaune. The two caught the hint and turned around. There was a table with a dark brown letterman's jacket with light beige sleeves. On top of sat a tape recorder. Pretty old tech if you ask Wolfe. He took hold of it and the man in the cell was nodding in a happy motion. Wolfe walked up to the man and gave him the tape recorder.

With fast speed, there was odd sound of a rewinding tape. "VVVvvert _Hello_." The tape said in a woman's voice.

"Um hi?" Wolfe asked. There was moment again of the man messing with his recorder.

"VvVert I am captive here, for the wrong reasons. Vvt Please release me, and I shall assist you, VVEERTV **in battle**, VVVTTt Against the Vt Commissar." The tape button was released.

"Why should we do that?" Wolfe asked.

"VvvvVeeettt I am captive here, TTvvrT I wish to be free of TVTTRT This f**king hell. VTTVR Please _assist_." The recorder was released and the young man was concerned n what will happen next.

"Come on man, he said 'please.'" Wolfe nodded.

Then the comms flared. "Oh don't mind us, Neo and I fended off a wave of enemies while you to enjoy your dungeon exploring… You're welcome." Velvet cut out.

"I knew they could do it." Crescent thought out loud.

"vVert Please _assist_." The man put his recorder by his side now.

"Fuck it. Let him out." Crescent said. Wolfe walked forward and the lock of the cell was tipped with the last of the thermal dust paste. It ate the lock and the door was opened.

"VVRT I am most grateful." The young man walked to the table and grabbed his coat and put it on. From observation, Crescent could tell that the young man was at ease with himself. He turned around and nodded to him or Wolfe.

"What's your name?"

"vvvvRT I do not _own_… one." The young man in the jacket shrugged.

"We'll figure that out later. For now, we'll call you Jacket." Crescent didn't want to waste any more time. "Wolfe you back upstairs and help Neo and Velvet." Wolfe nodded and started to make his way outside.

"Jacket, with me." Crescent said as he watched Jacket get a gun in his hand. It was an nice looking Mac 11 submachine gun. It had a nice light blue hue, with an orange of the evening sun with palm trees.

"Nice piece." Crescent smiled under his mask.

"VRT Thank you very much." Crescent nodded. He was still weary of Jacket, but he didn't do anything to show he was a threat to him or Wolfe. Jaune knew he had to keep an eye on him though.

"VRT Masked man, please follow." Jacket walked in front of Jaune.

"The name's Crescent." Crescent stated.

"VRT Crescent, please follow." The two walked into the room Wolfe seeped through. There were a series of boxes and the crew had no plans to search them all. Jacket walked across the room and took out a crowbar.

"VRT Commissar, has _New_ security." Crescent was taken aback by that information. "VRT Please observe." Jacket plunged the crowbar into the crate, and lifted it off. It revealed an AK-39 but with modern armored plating and helmets.

"Well that changes a lot." Crescent looked at Jacket. "Thanks for telling us."

"vvVVRt No problem." Jacket's tape recorder responded with a woman's voice.

"Why help us?" Crescent asked.

"VVVrrrT You are allies. VRT I never go back on a promise." Jacket shrugged.

"Well that's good to know." Crescent shrugged.

"Look out people, a badass police force looks like they're on their way." Velvet said into the comms.

**Play the third song now**

"How soon will they be on top of us?" Jaune asked. BOOSH! A concrete was collapsed.

"Right now." Velvet said.

Before Jaune could react, he was slammed with a hammer and launched across the room. He looked up but he was stunned from the blow as well. To his right, Wolfe looked like he came down into the room as well.

"Oh shit! TITANDOZER!" A heavy mech like the Bulldozers stood before the team. Except this one was more in tuned with melee combat. In its arms was a heavy sledgehammer that the Titandozers can wield.

In front of the Titandozer stood Jacket. There was a raised motion by the dozer and the hammer was brought down to Jacket. He sidestepped the dozer and the hammer slammed down missing him. Jacket pulled up his piece and fire several rounds into the left joints but it was fruitless to do so. The dozer shook off Jacket and lifted its hammer and reeled it to its left side and the hammer was brought in to the left and swiped the air. The dozer had enough of Jacket and it shoved the handle of the hammer into Jacket's chest. It had him stumble backwards and the left foot of the dozer was ready to slam into Jacket. But before long, Jacket lifted his arms and rolled to his right. When the foot came down. When it was distracted, Jacket readied the crowbar.

"VVvvvRTrrT Everyone, please stand back. And enjoy the _show_." Jacket's recorder went off, as he jumped onto the back of the dozer and rammed the crowbar into the back of the neck of the machine and stabbed it repeatedly. Up and down, up and down, then on the last blow. Jacket switched to the curve side and stabbed into the dozer. He twisted the crowbar until the dozer stopped moving. He ripped the crowbar out of the circuitry of the machine. He was making a gasping motion but no sound was coming from Jacket. He looked at Jaune and Wolfe.

"VRT Shall we proceed?"

"Fuck yeah!" Wolfe walked up and high fived Jacket."

"It looks like we got what we needed for the police to react. We better bug out now." Crescent said what came to his mind.

"VRT Hold up." Jacket walked to another box and removed the lid of it. Inside he kneeled down and pulled out all around mask that covered the whole head. It was a armored mask that was in the shape of a rooster head.

"VRT I am now prepared."

"You're going to fit in with us. Come on guys." Crescent said as he turned around and started to jog. Wolfe was right next to him and here they were at the floor above with Neo behind a wall gasping for air. Crescent and Wolfe looked at her.

"Sorry it took us so long." Wolfe apologized. Neo just responded by giving Crescent and Wolfe a middle finger.

"Listen people, the police are here and I need to bug out in a moment. Better hurry up if you still want my help." Velvet stated as she loaded her second to last clip.

"Got it Velvet. Give us a moment." Crescent walked outside. "Bile, we're ready for pickup." Crescent stated.

"I was waiting for that call. Be there in 90 seconds. Be ready." Bile stated.

When Crescent moved his hand, a SWAT van parked outside the motel. No police were moving in.

"That van has been here for a while. We took out all the droids of that one though." Velvet pointed out as she kneeled down again. She was moving all over on the rooftops to get clear shots to help Neo. Now she was at the spot where she can escape easily.

"Alright we're bugging out." Crescent stated. When he said that. The top of the SWAT van popped open and a heavy duty machine gun turret shifted and aimed toward the crew.

"OH SHIT!" Crescent turned around and jumped forward. There was a barrage of bullets beating down into the room the crew was in. They kept their heads down.

"FUCK, we can't move!" Wolfe shouted.

"Hey guys I see an important gear exposed to me. Once I make the shot, I'm done for." Velvet pointed out as she aimed. She noticed the police sweep the rooftops. "You got twenty seconds! HURRY!"

"We don't have the firepower!" Crescent shouted.

"VVvvRT Perhaps this will help?" Jaune looked to his right to see Jacket with two RPGs in hand. Crescent nodded and the RPG was passed to him.

"Do it!"

Velvet didn't waste a single second, and the piece flew off the turret and was aiming toward the ground and was left out in the open. When it did happen, Crescent and Jacket burst out from the ruined walls, and with red pipes in hand and the two aimed directly at the SWAT van.

"NOW!" Wolfe shouted.

With that, a loud streaking noise eminiated from the room the crew was in. A puff of smoke came out. And before long, the top of the SWAT van exploded in red inferno and had the turret be put down for good. The cops on the roofs all ducked down and backed off, fearing the worst. Velvet watched in awe as the crew walked out of the room pouring gasoline on the cars and the one named Neo tossed a match. All the cars caught fire and the motel was the orange glow of the sun from the fires.

A new one with a Rooster mask was with the crew and he had a duffle bag on his back and the four of them stood on the roof. Crescent helped pull the Rooster man up and the Airship hovered above them with rope dropping down to take them out the place.

"Thank you for helping Velvet. Get outta here!" Crescent said as he was lifted up in the airship. With a new person in tow.

"It's been a pleasure Payday Gang." Velvet smiled and nodded at the sight of pure destruction. She jumped down from her roof and sprinted to her escape route.

Crescent lifted his mask and looked at Jacket.

"Thank you, my name is Jaune." Jaune offered his hand to Jacket.

"VVvvRT It's a pleasure to meet you." Jacket smiled under his mask.

"Now let's go get the Comminssar." Jaune smiled.

**Well there we have people. Jacket is here and is taking names and kicking ass. I just wanted to say thank you all so damn much for voting. I know the sniper won, and I poked fun at myself with the explosives. Please don't flame me for it. Did you like the music, fights, and characters? Did you like the new enemy of the Titandozer? I know it exist in the game but this story it will appear much much more often. How do you like Jacket, Mr. Cloud and Velvet in the story? Please let me know. But Wait, there's more, part two of his heist will be done in a couple of days, so please stay tuned. Now response corner time.**

**CrimsonHeresy: **Oh yeah, this story is going to go for a long time. I'm excited as well. Thank you for voting.

**Lukefang:** That game looks like so much fun.

**Cerberus13: **This heist got even better because the one and only Jacket. Thank you for voting.

**Petty Officer Waffles: **I want to make this story stand out. Thank you for liking it so far. This crazy life will only continue. Thank you for saying I'm dedicated. Sorry option two didn't win but I hope you like the chapter.

**Buddy: **Yep, Jacket is here and to kick major ass. I'm so happy you love the story so far. I hope you dig this chapter, and please tell me your thoughts please. Detail and characters is what I focus on.

**Gilgamesh The King of Heroes: **Cinder is quite devious aint she?

**Mighty Prussia: **I hope you like who the sniper was. Thank you for voting.

**MajorDarkBlade: **I'm glad you like it and voted as well. I hope you liked this chapter.

**Drow79:** Explosives are so much fun. I compensated the lack of this chapter in the finale explosion. I hope you like it.

**Supernoob257: **I hope you like Velvet as the sniper of for the team. Thank you for voting.

**Vulcan2312: **Thank you for voting and have an excellent day.

**ArrM80: **Thank you for voting.

**Operator Blake 'Roxasrock:** Yeah, Cinder has to be difficult to be around. But there'll be definitely be more of her in the future. Thank you so much for voting. Have a wonderful day.

**Iandude:** The story is fun for me to write as well. I glad you feel that way. I hope you like this chapter and there truly is never enough explosives.

**Meime:** Thank you for reading and voting. We'll just have to wait and see how the story will continue. Have an awesome day.


	14. Chapter 14, The Close Calls

**To those who love a good RWBY story please check out "Reclaimers" by Operator Blake 'Roxasrock. It is a rather interesting tale of Blake and her life dealing with being part Faunus with Jaune there to help her cope. She's depressed and her friends are there to help her deal with it and she learns plenty about herself. It's a wonderful story, and I highly recommend it. The songs for this chapter will be "**88 mph**" by Garth Knight, "**Outlander**" by Droid Bishop, and "**Night Chase**" by The Hunt. Now for Part 2.**

**First song: ** watch?v=7zWaZLkNt-o

**Second song:** watch?v=0Q3ld3Xwv84

**Third song:** watch?v=p0uEOeIg-4g

"Now let's go get the Commissar." Jaune smiled as the doors of the airship began to close. Wolfe walked past him and then they all sat down. Between the bullets and adrenaline, it was pretty tiring. As Jaune walked to the closest seat, his stomach was halted by the umbrella of Neo.

"Oh, go introduce yourself. He's helping us out." Jaune gently used his hand to brush Neo's umbrella out of his way. Wolfe was taking deep breaths as he was tired as well. He ejected the clip of his gun to discover it only had three bullets left in the magazine. The clip was set down and he clicked the safety on his weapon as he reloaded it.

Neo walked up to Jacket, his rooster mask was still on. Neo's mask was smudged with several streaks of dark grease. It was because she had to duck down so much behind the cars. Jacket however has his rooster mask which looked cartoony than a real looking head. It didn't matter to him but it was still the mask he prefers to use.

…

Neo stared at Jacket.

… …

Jacket stared at Neo.

… … …

With a flick of his finger to his recorder. "vvVeeRT, I am glad we understand each other." Jacket shook his head as he circled around Neo. She briefly turned her head and stopped midway. The airship was roomy because of the space was meant for cargo. So there was plenty of room to sit down and wait.

"Jacket this is Neo." Wolfe said as he stocked up on magazines for his weapon.

"Neo this is Jacket." Jaune said as he took out a candy bar which was left in the airship. He crushed down on the chocolate and observed the two members. He needed the sugar for the last portion of the job.

"VrT, _Hello_, your parasol is quite unique." Jacket played on his recorder, as he opened his bag and started to rummage through it.

Neo's mask was still down but it didn't stop Jaune from reading her body language. She didn't trust Jacket. The crew didn't know anything about him; he's scary, and good in a fight. Jaune wanted to think the same way, but he wanted to focus more on the Commissar.

"What cha' got in the bag?" Jaune leaned forward. There was nothing but the sound of vibration of the airship along with the droning of the engines. He was prepped from stocking up again.

"VVVRT, it is rather nice to be prepared." Jacket pressed pause on his recorder as he pulled out a brown looking flak jacket, a belt, a box of four grenades.

That was just the tactical stuff. He pulled out a wrench, crowbar, and baseball back from the lower parts of the bag. For the final bit he had six clips of ammunition for his Mac 11. He took off his jacket and with his blue undershirt visible; he lifted the flak vest and pulled it over his shirt. He secured with the plastic belts. With that he was able to load three clips and put them on his hips, which the vest had pockets for. He lifted his jacket and wore it over his vest. With that, Wolfe noticed there were three loops on the back, and it was rather odd until he watched Jacket put the blunt weapons to be held in loops. The wrench went to left, the crowbar to the right, and the baseball bat in the center. He took the belt and strapped it on. He looked at Neo.

"VVrrT, May I please use your VRT explosives?" Jacket nodded at Neo. He wanted the concussion grenades. She took two of the grenades and passed it to Jacket. He took them.

"RerT, Thank you." Jacket pulled the belt and latched the grenades to belt and put two of the standard dust grenades to his belt.

"Where did you get all that?" Jaune asked.

"VRT, A cache was hidden in a box. VRT I gathered them in a hurry." Jacket's recorder said as he sat down on the edge of his seat, his back full of weapons and all.

Wolfe leaned in to Jaune. "He's awesome, so he wants a piece of the Commissar as well? Fine by me." Wolfe said.

"Alright people, we're about a minute out. The news is blaring about the attacks. So I would expect resistance." Bile said into the intercom. Jaune didn't feel the rush right away, but Neo and Wolfe stood up. Wolfe pulled down his mask to his face.

Wolfe adjusted his shoulders. He recalled the plan perfectly. It was that the apartment is seven floors. There is a possible escape to go down or up the staircases to the roof or basement. So there was a sense of urgency and they would have to act fast. They used up way too much thermal dust paste in case they do come across an issue. So the building has a small garrison of droids. So now with the intel of better machines to hide behind for the Commissar. He swapped out ten more shells of his ammo bag for slug shells for Neo. They would have to move in quickly and breach the defenses.

"Sorry, I don't have any ammunition for you Jacket." Wolfe said.

"VVvvrT, We'll make it work." Jacket stood up and Jaune followed the crew's example. So now.

"Here we are people." Bile stated as the apartment complex came into view. There was a back door that leads into the building. In the doorway, it lead inside the building but wasn't part of the hallways to go up or down. Just a store room with crates, the crew was going to sneak in through there, and make their way up or down.

A block away, the airship hovered over a vacant street. Neo was the first one out, then Wolfe, Jaune and Jacket.

**Play the first song**

"Let's move people." Crescent said under bated breath. He lifted his Knights SR 10, Jacket kept his Mac 11 at his hip as there was no stock for the weapon. Each of them sprinted across the street as Crescent huffed and huffed as he felt the weight of his armor, weapon, and emergency drill to use. He was tough, and he had to pull through. The only one with the least gear was Neo but that was by design, in case any of the crew needed help with something.

The street was in view, there were two droids watching over the street. They looked like the improved models Jacket showed Crescent. Each of the machines even had new weapons. It was in full preparation for war. It was, until an ECM Jammer rolled to the boot of one droid and its vision was scrambled. The crew just sprinted past the pair.

The doorway into the storeroom was left wide open as the crew entered it and there were four crates all standing up. All four to them took cover along the wall. Neo could hear that a group of men there heading their way. She waved her arm and the crew caught on to what she meant.

Crescent and Wolfe backed up and since the crates were all opened up, all of them stood in front of them. The men walked in, three were humans and one droid. All of them walked to the center of the room to and started to pull out cigarettes to smoke. One person walked up to the crate Wolfe was in.

"I thought we already cleaned these crates out already." Here the crew was, in plain sight of the men. But what the men didn't know as that Neo placed a mental mirror for the men to perceive that the crates were closed. It was her Semblance ability, she can crate fake decoys masked as mirrors, of her last action. It applies to other people when she concentrates enough. The thing is though; she can't keep the barriers forever.

"Now." Crescent said.

The mirror images shattered and the crew pounced on their targets. Crescent reached forward and head butted his target. Wolfe sprinted forward as his mask had shards roll off his mask, and tackled another target to the ground and tased him with his stun gun. Neo dropped her umbrella and kicked it forward having the man trip over, and she had her right foot kick him in the forehead. The droid could barely register the chaos, and before it fired at Jaune, the throat of the machine burst open with a blue crowbar. Jacket placed his right hand on the other end and wrenched back for the droid become off balance. Jacket twisted and twist toward its body until the helmet of the machine was severed.

_That could become a problem._ Crescent walked to the doorway and stuck his head out.

"We're clear." Crescent pulled his Knight's SR, and so did the crew with their weapons.

The team sprinted up the small staircase and it was a rather tiny courtyard as there was a narrow hallway leading to the street. The crew turned to the steel doors and Neo walked up placing the last of the charges to the wall. Jacket reaffirmed his grip on his weapon. The doors blasted open with two men on the ground dazed but mostly unharmed. The crew just walked past them as Wolfe pulled out his sidearm and fired several electro dust rounds into them.

When the doors exploded, there was a moving elevator. Crescent remembered the face of that man. They almost had the Commissar; he sprinted forward and pressed his back to a pillar. He aimed his rifle and nothing came his way.

"There's nothing, move up." Crescent ordered as Jacket and Wolfe sprinted up the staircase, as Jacket kept his gun up for any enemies. Neo walked forward and tried pressing the button for the elevator. Nothing happened.

"Stairs it is." Crescent moved from his cover.

"It's clear up here." Wolfe said into his comms. He and Jacket were ready to sprint down the halls, but with an unknown enemy force, that is very dangerous. When Crescent and Neo got to the top of the stairs, they were all ready to move. A set of droids appeared down the hall, there was one enforcer.

Neo lowered her umbrella and extended it, the array of bullets rubbed along the kevlar. She leaned back. Jacket and Crescent were taking enemy fire so they had to take cover behind the pillar. The two narrowly fit themselves. Neo and Wolfe had to make a move.

Neo extended her umbrella as Wolfe crouched down behind her. The machines were firing blankly at them giving Crescent the chance to make a pop-shot and land a chest hit on one of the droids. It was that at that moment, Neo blasted one of the three droids with her slug shell. Wolfe poked his head out for fire several rounds, and decommissioned his target. As the human enforcer ducked his head out of cover, it was greeted with a flying monkey wrench and fell chest first to the ground. He lifted his head, and spat out a tooth. There was a large amount of force on his back and he was introduced to electricity.

Wolfe nodded to himself and he looked forward to see an axe aimed directly for him and it struck the center of his chest. He toppled backwards landing flat on his back.

Jacket sprinted in front of everyone and there was several cackling of gun shots as a severed android arm was still clenched down to a hatchet was in Jacket's right hand.

Crescent kneeled down, to Wolfe.

"Ow!" Wolfe moaned as Crescent yanked the hatchet out of his body armor.

"He's fine." Crescent offered his hand to help Wolfe up. Jacket shrugged and dropped the android arm.

"You look like the walking dead."

"It's the mask, chicks love it." Wolfe chuckled as he glad that he's still alive with a bruise instead of an open wound.

"Aw that's cute. I'll have to record it when one of you dies!" The Commissar taunted over a crap intercom. He must be watching from his penthouse.

"vvvVVRT He's watching… our approach." Jacket stated as he the group was ready to move. He walked into view of one of the cameras.

"Oh? I see you've released my pet project." The Commissar stated.

As he finished that sentence, Jacket's fists were clenched. He had an aura to be an unmovable force. With that, Jacket turned around to continue forward.

"VRT, Allow me to lead." Jacket's tape recorder said in a man's voice this time but with an accent. (Think French)

"Go for it." Crescent stated as the crew rallied and pressed on. It was then when they reached the end of the hall, there was a wide gaping hole. It was like it was smashed apart to make a rather lazy entrance into the apartments. It was before the team moved forward, the closest wall splintered apart, as another Titandozer swung its hammer. The pieces of the wall rolled off of the frame of the Dozer.

It appeared to look like the Titandozer like what the police had but this one looked to be made up of spare parts.

"YEAH, Dozer in the HOUSE!" There was a voice box in the dozer, and with a swing the hammer, it smashed a hole in front of Neo. She backed up as it was going for her. Crescent dropped his weapon as it started to hang from his straps.

Jacket was about to help until a squad of AK-39s showed up in the apartment. He lifted his piece and riddled a droid with bullets and took cover behind a couch. It was really shitty cover as the couched puffed up with fabric. Wolfe knew he hand to help Crescent, but Jacket needed help even more. He sprinted across an open portion of the hall, he appeared at the doorway as the droids were backing off, and he lifted his G36 and unleashed three burst shots and was left in the open. Jacket shoved the couch forward and he finished the rest of them with his Mac 11, but he ran out in the clip.

As that happened, the Dozer was raising its hammer again. Crescent unloaded his weapon to be absorbed and it didn't stop the dozer.

"Hehe, that tickles." The dozer's crappy voice box retorted.

Crescent dropped his weapon again and drew his sword and shield. It was then the brought it down for a good vertical slash, and Neo was able to move out of the way in time. Crescent and Neo took a step back. Gun fire from the room ahead meant Wolfe and Jacket were busy.

"Your back is against the wall, and I'm the FUCKIN' Wall!" The Dozer adjusted its hammer. Crescent's sword was pulled back as he lifted is shield to absorb the direct blow of the hammer. Crescent can endure blows from Death Stalker, so a Dozer is no problem. (Death Stalkers are huge scorpions that love to fight, and about the size of a bus.)

Neo blasted a round toward the Dozer, and the front portion of the machine was parentally a faceplate. It shook but it wasn't removed fully yet. Neo and Crescent noticed it and it started its approach. Neo ejected the next shell and fired a new shell. It struck the Dozer's left shoulder, and it continued to charge to them. Crescent charged forward as his shield grinded against the handle of the hammer, the Dozer clenched its robotic fist and did a haymaker launching Crescent back to the wall.

"Is that all you GOT!" The Titandozer blared. Neo had enough of the damn machine.

She blasted another shell which had the faceplate of the Dozer be removed and spun in the air. It revealed a central processor with a black visor. It was a chic in the armor. Neo pressed on with her attack and blasted another round and her shotgun clicked empty, she drew her sword in that moment. The hammer was reeling in toward her right, and the image of Neo shattered into pieces. The Dozer's visor was plunged with a small saber sword. Neo's blade was pulled out as she stabbed the machine 2 more times. The Titandozer was no more.

"Yeah, great job." Crescent gave a tired thumbs up to Neo.

… Neo offered a hand. Crescent took it and was rubbing his chest. "That almost hurt." He tried to downplay the pain.

"Hey you guys alright?" Wolfe said as he loaded a fresh clip into his weapon. Jacket was taking cover on an opposite wall waiting for the crew. They were running out of time. Each of them gathered themselves and pressed onward. They past several trashy rooms with a piles of garbage and spoiled food. No one comes to clean up the place. So before entering the hallway again, on both sides, the walls were blocked off. So the staircase was safe to get to. Neo and Jacket had the lead.

Both of them made it up the stair case and sprinted onward as there were no doors to flank them. Crescent and Wolfe stood tall and noticed.

The recorder's volume was set to high.

"VRT, Be warned, a Barricade is slowing us down." Jacket shook the bars. A steel bar door was in the way of the hallway. It was rather large and no way for any them to squeeze through.

"We're out of paste." Crescent said while standing straight.

Neo tapped Jacket's chest. She pointed toward the corners of the gate, and it was a barrier but the hallway corners weren't reinforced.

"VRT I see. VVvvrt, Wolfe, please hand provisions." Jacket turned around.

"Huh?" Wolfe then realized that he wanted ammunition.

Neo shook her head, she made two fists and separated them and Jacket's recorder went. "VRT rrrriiiippppe."

"Oh, you guys want duck-tape. Wolfe reached for his back and pulled out a very small roll of silver and Jacket took it.

"VVvvvRt, Fantastic." He started to do something.

The closest window to the crew was reduced to slabs of crystal with bullets being wedged into the wall. Crescent, Neo, and Wolfe ducked down and hugged the wall. What was happening was that droids from other windows were firing at them. Crescent felt a bullet strike his back, but didn't make it through. It was like being shoved.

Neo finished loading new shells and she pumped for it to be ready. She turned around to get a shot until a bullet grazed her mask. She loved how well it looked. With her eyes going brown, she was lit with a fury. She blinked. There were seven droids in the windows.

She pumped the first shell. A droid to her upper right was missing a helmet. She pumped the second shell. The droid above on the roof had a leg newly removed and it fell downward to greet the concrete. She pumped the fifth shell. A droid chest was stumbled but it was destroyed yet. She pumped the seventh shell. She took down six of the seven droids. Crescent had to reload, and Wolfe took out the last one by careful aim.

"VvvRtt, Move back." Jacket's recorder went off. Neo turned her head to see three grenades ducked taped to the corners of the metal barrier. With ingenuity, Jacket had a taped at the edge of his baseball bats handle and was wrapped around the pins to the grenades.

The crew stood up and sprinted back.

"Fire in the hole!" Crescent shouted. It was pretty meaningless to say, but how many times can he say that before an explosion?

BOTTOOM.

There was a puff of dust, Jacket walked away as he didn't get far away fast enough. He put his bat back into his jacket. His mask turned to the crew.

"vvRRt, My ears… are… ringing." Jacket face palmed his mask.

"Awesome." Wolfe said as he moved from the corner. The crew jogged toward the barrier. It was showed that the barrier was on the ground. The corners were nothing but small gaps.

"DUST DAMNIT!" The Commissar hissed on the intercom.

The crew sprinted down the hall, with a detour into an apartment rooms. There were 2 droids but were taken care of with ease. Jacket's hearing came back, by the time the crew made it to the sixth floor. The stairs allowed them to skip two floors. It was here that the hallway was actually, clean and the walls were painted with a light blue.

Crescent wanted to say the obvious, but all of them wanted to end this assault. It was There were more droids to be seen on the roofs. Wolfe took cover with Neo. Those two were going to take several of them out before moving on.

**The Song should end here, and start the second one.**

Jacket and Crescent kept moving and at the end of the short hall was a set of double doors. Jacket pulled out a new clip for his piece, he had only three left, and Crescent had two left. They needed ammo once they were finished clearing out the room. They didn't have any more grenades and Wolfe had the last one. So Jacket had his left hand grab a concussion grenade from his belt, and yanked it off, he brought it close, and the pin was removed.

Even with his mask, Jacket can still nod. So Crescent pulled shot out the hinges of the wooden door and kicked it down and quickly hugged the wall. Jacket tossed the grenade in and with a BAANGG! Two men were stumbling about. Jacket walked to them and did a quick takedown.

It was rather small room with a view to walk out onto a wide balcony. There weren't any droids there yet and Crescent was careful on walking around. Jacket took the opposite direction and found a small room with TV monitors with a microphone. So it must be the command center here as well. He looked to his right to see a wall burned up, it was fresh, and nothing was left. He kneeled down, to find a sticky note.

In bolded letters, the not had just two words. 'Hotline Project.' Jacket knew it was his only clue, so he folded the note, and placed it into his pocket. He walked out to see Crescent finally moving his bag to place a drill on what seems like a steel safe room.

"We're coming in." Wolfe said into the comms.

"Alright, it's clear for the moment." Crescent said.

"Neo spotted the police lights below. We got about two minutes before the police start kicking down doors.

"Roger." Crescent pressed the start button on the drill.

"I'm drinking a martini in here, how about you assholes?" The Commissar sneered. He could still be heard through his panic room.

"Bile, we're on the roof, bring the finally measures." Wolfe knew that they couldn't move out in time. By now, the police must have airships to follow their next escape.

"Got it." The hardened pilot adjusted his controls. The airship adjusted its pattern to head toward the hotel. He had to keep his distance because he could be sought out by the police, ruining the crew's escape.

As the group were positioning themselves, the floor to the balcony was crumbling as several AK-39s crawled out. Four of them were latching themselves onto the concrete. Neo and Jacket were the first to respond. It was here that the team; had to concentrate fire onto their emergence. Two were eliminated, but six others were able to get on their feet. Two of them jumped from below. Their guns not set to stun.

Wolfe and Crescent were monitoring the main hall as the final waves of AK-39s were assaulting the roof. They fired along the hall as more windows broke apart. A droid tossed a small yellow grenade. It blasted apart with a puff of smoke. The droids were covering their approach with the smoke grenade.

Crescent and Wolfe were at a disadvantage, so they took a step back, and waited for the droids to make a move. It was then three arrived through the smoke. Crescent took the brunt of the assault as he armor was able to hold up. He drew his sword and shield and charged forward, he sliced a droid's helmet clean off. Then his stood still then whammed his shield into the closest droid as Wolfe drew his pistol and transformed into a knuckle busters with a bladed tip. He decked a droid in the center and as it aimed toward him, he brought the blade down to pierce the top of the head. He looked forward at it then pulled his blade out.

Another wave was coming in as the second balcony had a hole blasted through. It wasn't the AK-39s, but the Atlesian Knights with riot shields, two of them to be precise. Since droids aren't humanoids, they were packing MP5Ks, and were able to absorb the recoil. Before even thinking about the droids as a problem, the Knights decided Wolfe was the worst target. He had to slap his back to the closest wall and pray none of the bullets would go through.

Neo saw this and turned on her last ECM jammer and lowly tossed it toward the legs of the machines. Their sensors were scrambled and turned to the AK-39s and started firing at them.

Wolfe loaded his last clip. He needed ammo like everyone else. He walked to the room with the monitors and with a small nightstand along the wall; he unstrapped the ammo bag from his back. He placed it on the stand. "Come get ammo here!" He shouted as he started to compulsively stuff his pockets with the clips he prepared for himself.

Neo was the first one to enter the room. She closed her umbrella and opened her vest as she took a fistful of shells and started to restock her vest. She looked at the monitors. She leaned her head forward. It was clear now, that she knew something was up with the monitors.

"What is it?" Wolfe shouted as he took a pop shot outside. He looked back and noticed a small keyboard at the edge of the table. Then it sparked in mind.

"Great work Neo!" Wolfe sprinted to the monitors and started to type in a rapid pace.

Jacket was in the room next, it was then he saw Wolfe. The pressed several buttons on his recorder as he took out his Piece and started to reload it. "VvvEEEt, What are you doing?" He pulled the chamber back for a _click_ sound. He was on his last clip.

"Hacking the AK-39s, maybe they could keep the police at bay!" Wolfe shouted.

"Great work, now can I have some help out here!?" Crescent slammed his last clip into his gun. He looked back to see the Atlesian Knights become overpowered by the AK-39s numbers. By then, those that came close enough to the ECM jammers range, the closest ones would turn on the others.

He looked back to see a pair of more Knights but this time in what appeared to be bulky blue armor and the helmets were blue as well. Then with a _ZzzZttT_ a string of wires stretched out to Crescent.

He was being shocked again, and it was rocking his body, but he had a firm grip on his gun to at least fire several rounds to hit the second Taser droid. It was stopped but damaged. Crescent couldn't hold on and his rifle dropped at the end of the strap.

In the corner of his vision, Jacket appeared with his crowbar. The second Taser fired at him. He was struck in the chest but wasn't stopped. He took a step forward, and another step and pierced the helmet of the Taser. He turned to the one that was getting Crescent. He took out his wrench and flipped it around and tossed it at the first Taser. It was knocked back by the sheer force.

Crescent dropped to the ground. His vision was blurred and felt Jacket use his hand to pulled Crescent up by the collar.

"VRT, No time for resting." Jacket looked forward.

Crescent shook his head and blinked rapidly to get back into the fight. He got to his feet as Neo was providing cover fire.

"Crescent, come get ammo." Wolfe repeated as he typed furiously.

"Gah… moving." Crescent grunted. He jogged into the room.

"And… that's… all… she… wrote!" Wolfe fist bumped his the air. The remaining Ak-39s stopped firing and looked up but turned around to face against the police droids.

"Great work!" Crescent said as he placed the last clip into his vest. He was light now and could feel himself at ease. On another note, he was happy he didn't drink any water when before doing the job… Tasers do more than stun you.

"According to the cameras, the police are being pushed back."

"VVvvvRT, Phenomenal." Jacket only had half a clip left to his weapon, his wrench broke, and only had one concussion grenade. The crew was able to catch their breath. The panic room was still locked down.

**Song two ends and song three begins.**

"Check ammo." Crescent said as two clips dropped to the floor. Neo loaded the last of the slug shells. She had plenty of buckshot but she wanted to be alive than rich in ammo.

The crew walked to the room as the panic room was still secured.

"I'm here." Bile said as he hovered above the balcony, the airship dropped a bag. It was parts to a thermal drill, the one they were using wasn't making enough of an effort. Alright, hurry, people. A badass police force is gearing up."

Crescent and Wolfe lifted the bag and removed the last drill and started to place the pieces together on the thermal one. After thirty seconds of assembly, the drill was already put to work.

Above, under the sound of bullets and mayhem. A string of smoke was heading toward Bile's craft. Bile's training kicked in as he flexed the ship for the missile to zoom past him. It was all rather fast.

"I gotta bug out! Enemy airship packing heat!" Bile's air ship zoomed off as the other one came into view. It was a nice shining airship with turrets and missile launchers. It was here that they learned it was the Commissar's personal taxi.

"About damn time it showed up!" The Commissar's voice echoed. The airship started to fire at the roof.

The crew all took cover behind pillars, and the bullets sent debris flying in every direction.

"You're so FUCK!" The Airship's intercom taunted.

"Yes you are. Just give up and leave the girl. She'll be a star in the next porn video." The Commissar laughed and it echoed out of his panic room. A blast struck the metal. Neo didn't care if it wasted a slug, her blood was boiling.

Crescent and Wolfe popped from cover aiming for the cockpit but it was heavily armored as well. So from there, the airship adjusted itself to aim at Crescent.

"Oh SHIT!" His mind was filled by the thought of sharp pains. He looked at the barrel of the turret. Even with all the crap of his life, he was still content with it so far. He hoped his sisters would understand.

The bullet struck near his feet and he was consumed by smoke, and dust.

"One down!" The Airship cheered.

Wolfe's eyes widened under his mask. He loaded a fresh new clip. "You MOTHERFUCKER!" He fired in bursts and sprinted to a new location. He jumped forward and slammed a new clip in.

"Isn't that cute?" The Airship adjusted its sights.

Jacket joined the party as he fired the rest of his gun and grabbed a severed droid arm ready to use as weapon. He lifted the riot shield and before he sprinted out. Neo had her arm and tugged Jacket back. He looked at where Crescent was to see a shattered image of him with Crescent firing at the airship in a corner.

Neo created a mirror image and pulled him out of the way.

"VVVvvvRT, Wolfe! Crescent is still in service!" The volume hurt his ears but Wolfe was more important.

Wolfe turned his head as a missile launched to his location and struck the pillar, he was safe for the most part.

"Tell me that shit SOONER! I NEED HELP!" Wolfe inverted his legs and arms to make himself a smaller target.

So now the team did have the firepower to take the airship down. So they all hunkered down. But all the damage to the pillars was too much. So the ceiling started to crack. As that happened, the airship backed off and hovered above the building instead.

The cracks extend and eventually the ceiling was giving in to its own weight. The Crew sprinted back to the hallway, as it all came crashing down. But at the very tip of Neo's vision, she noticed a blue suit moved out in time to escape the rubble. She pumped the next shell out of her umbrella. What happened was that the Commissar was escaping now. She sprinted forward and the crew followed after her. Wolfe saw that his drill was smashed but a majority of the parts were intact.

"Stall him! I'll be there in a moment!" Wolfe shouted as he crouched down to the drill.

"VRT, Alright!" Jacket's recorder understood as the three members circled around the rubble to see it make a path toward the roof. It was there that a ladder was lowered for the Commissar. Crescent raised his Knight's SR. He fired four bullets and one hinge of the ladder was snapped and the ladder gave away to the weight of the Commissar.

He fell to his back and he leaned up. "You don't seriously think I'm defenseless do you?" He rambled as he got to his feet. His tortoise suit was easy to see as the night sky had the lights shine on the city. Above, a passenger from the Airship dropped an LMG for the Commissar to catch.

"Come at me." The balding man grinded his teeth as Jacket raised his shield in time for Crescent to hide behind him. Neo ducked down and rolled to her left to an air vent machine. It was crappy and needed to move quickly. The Commissar laughed as the crew was scattered.

"What are you doing! You wanted me? Now you got me!" He laughed hearty, he felt alive, someone to oppose him. His gun was halfway spent as Crescent aimed of the form the hip of Jacket. The he fired several rounds but didn't hit the Commissar.

His gun ran dry and he lifted the top portion of his LMG. Which was a M60 Light Machine Gun, it had a serious kick without a bipod, so it may have saved Neo as she was ready to move from cover. The Airship above caught on to the gun fire and started to shift its position.

The LMG was of the same blue of the Commissar's tacky suit. It had a spiked bat that expanded in width. So it was rather large as he charged forward to Jacket, his shield was knocked away, jumped back before the Commissar swung at him again. He was like a Titandozer but with better agility.

The airship was still adjusting. "Crescent! Help me out here!" Wolfe shouted. In his hands was the gas container with arranged to be in a rectangular shape. Crescent spotted him and sprinted without a care. As he was running, Jacket was about to be slammed by the Commissar. His bat was useless as was his crowbar, but his droid arm was flexible. By the time the bat came down to hit him, Jacket sidestepped the Commissar and missed. Jacket raised his droid arm, (another one he salvaged) and did a straight punch to the Commissar's chest and he twirled around for the droid arm hand to slap the Commissar, leaving a red hand print. Neo rushed in to help out Jacket.

As that happened, Wolfe and Crescent were fiddling around.

"What's this?" Crescent caught up to Wolfe.

"A bomb, I've had a smidge of thermal dust paste to amplify the gas to make it a-"

"What!?"

"Just fucking throw it!" Wolfe shouted in frustration.

Crescent placed the bomb in his hand and with his aura amplifying his body, he tossed the bomb like a baseball and it struck the engine of the enemy airship. It blasted in a brief red fire and smoke was emanating from the engine. So the airship spiraled out of control and drifted off and crash landed on another roof three buildings away.

The Commissar had his bat knock Jacket away, but Neo used her umbrella as support and kicked the Commissar in the head. He was almost done for. He looked around to see Crescent and Wolfe charging him.

Wolfe reached him first with his knuckle busters striking the hand of the Commissar and he dropped his weapon. Crescent walked up to him aiming his gun.

"Why are you bastards here?" The Commissar spat a tooth out.

"You're a danger to the people."

"Well so are you! Dust damn vigilantes." The Commissar had his wrist wipe his mouth from the blood.

Before Crescent could say more. Jacket cut in front of him.

"VRT, You had me kill people. Some innocent VRT Other killers!" Jacket took hold of the Commissars dress shirt. He clenched a fist and punched the Commissar again. Crescent had to pull him away.

"Relax Jacket." Crescent said as Jacket looked at him. He released his grip.

"I provide a service for the people of Vale. Like all businessmen." He turned to Jacket. "Do you really think you're the only one?" Jacket clenched his fists again.

"Shut up." Crescent said and walked in front of Jacket to prevent him from doing something dangerous.

"DIE!" A quick draw gun appeared from his sleeve. He was about to shoot at Neo until Crescent fired a round into the muscles close to his arm joints. He dropped the gun and stumbled backwards. His back fell the empty air and gravity doing what does best. He was about to fall over. Until a hand grabbed his shirt.

"You're not going out that easily." Crescent pulled the Commissar back. The Crew just watched. Wolfe was keeping an eye out for them. Crescent drew his sword.

With a series of slashes. The arms of the Commissar and his legs had red seep through. He cried in agony. His arms and legs were still attached. With a kick to the back of his leg, the Commissar fell to his knees.

"I've made cuts to your tendons of your arms, but not in your legs. There won't be any serious blood lost. But for your hands and arms, you'll be able to drink a cup of water. Use a phone. Or write with a pen. But you'll never be able to hold a gun or weapon the same way again, and it will be rather difficult to do so. So for now, enjoy the rest of your life. Neo?" Crescent leaned back as Neo walked up to give a direct kick to the Commissar's head and his fell to this side unconscious.

The crew walked away from the Commissar. Bile's airship came into view. It hovered for all of them to board. All of them got on as the Police final fought the last of the AK-39s. With them leaving the view of the Apartments.

_It's not about overpowering my opponents, its about taking what power they have._ Crescent thought as he moved his mask up. Jaune took a deep breath. Wolfe and Neo did the same. They all turned around as Jacket was sitting on a seat.

"VRT, You may drop me off wherever you please. I will bother you no more." Jacket released his belt. He leaned back.

Wolfe and Jaune looked at each other.

"Do you want to come with us to Beacon?" Wolfe asked. Jacket lifted his head.

"VRT, Maybe, but Crescent has to answer VRT a _question._" He looked at Jaune and he removed his mask.

Jaune released removed his straps on his armor and turned to Jacket. Jacket removed his mask.

"VvvvRRRrT, _Do you like hurting people_?" He looked at Jaune in the eye. Person to person. This was a question that Jaune was prepared for.

Jaune removed his weapon. "No, I don't." _You damn hypocrite_. Jaune thought to himself. But Jacket saw a different story, so he was content with his decision he was about to make.

Jacket nodded to Jaune. "VrrrttT, Beacon sounds like a fantastic place."

**An there we have it people, Jacket is part of the Payday Gang. The Hotline Miami job is over. And damn, it took a lot out of me. Did you like the songs? I chose these songs because I wanted it to be close to the Hotline Miami game. It was long and dangerous battle. I wanted this part of the job to seem more like a struggle than the smooth heists in the past. The Titandozer was a crappily made one, and the Commissar thought it would be funny if it talked. I thought it was cool. ****Thank you so much for reading.**

**Now for the response corner.**

**Lukefang: **It WILL continue. No need to worry.

**Supernoob257:** Thank you for liking it so much. Also, I'm glad to say that Jacket is part of the Payday gang. Maybe I'll include Velvet more in the future. We'll have to see.

**Mighty Prussia: **Thank you so much for reading. I absolutely love your profile pic by the way.

**Gamerandartist35:** Jacket is completely new, so I would seem that way. Thank you for the compliment, I just tend to over think stuff.

**Drow79: **For the sniper, Velvet was always my first choice on a good background character. Also, no problem on your thoughts toward Jacket. It just tells me I need to bring my A game when I'm writing Jacket, but in a good way. Thank you for reading.

**Iandude: **Thank you for liking the chapter so much. As for the Ship, I'm getting flood by that question in PMs. I'll just say, I'm still working out my thoughts on the idea. I guess it wasn't so grisly for the Commissar, but I think this is an okay second best. Have a wonderful day.

**Meime:** Velvet is a sniper, I was excited to use her. And for the story, I keep worrying as I try to keep one uping myself. But I'll gather my thoughts to so I can continue the story.

**D'ArcofNeo: **Hahaha, I laughed at the 'burrito' bit in your review. Thank you so much for the compliment. About the ship, we'll have to wait and see. Have a wonderful day.

**RyderRosas: **Yep Jacket her to kick ass and take names.

**Operator Blake 'Roxasrock:** Thank you for reading. I hope you don't mind me mentioning your story. It's a great story and I'm still happy to be an editor to.


	15. Chapter 15, Evening Noodle Stand

12 minutes later

The airship ride was brief as Bile took them to an isolated abandoned building, the roof was vacant and the surrounding buildings can't get a good look at the airship. The doors opened up as the group walked out. All of them were in their casual clothing.

Wolfe was wearing black pants with a grey t-shirt. Jaune put on his usual hoodie, and blue jeans. Neo's suit was exchanged for her town attire. It was a rule for the men to look away as Neo changed her clothes. None of them broke that rule. It was mostly because they had too much respect for her to feel the need to break that trust. Jacket remained in his usual clothes and he just removed his boxing tape.

It was okay for Jacket because when Wolfe hacked the AK-39s, he also wiped the memory of the cameras. Sure it could be recreated by careful data so when he was done, he smashed the hardware. Sure the fragments can be collected and reconstructed but it'll still be hazy images for the police to work with. So Jacket's appearance was safe.

Wolfe and Jacket were the first ones to walk across the roof to the fire escape. It was a series of stairs and Wolfe started to ramble on about something. Jaune turned to Neo; he had an envelope with lien inside. It was a small payment for her assistance in the job. She blinked at Jaune.

"I said I wasn't sure IF I could pay you." He looked back at the city. "Was that whole job even needed to be done? I mean, there really wasn't any real reason for us to take down the Commissar's operation."

Neo walked to Jaune and took the envelope, she opened it and she pocketed it with her matching chocolate brown purse. She walked toward the fire escape. When Jaune looked in her direction, she just raised both of her arms in a 'whatever' motion. He rolled his eyes. _Maybe I'm too hung up on this_. Jaune thought as he walked to the fire escape as well.

On the bottom the rest of the crew waited for him. Jacket's tape recorder was still in his pocket. He hasn't explained yet on why he can't talk, but there's no need to rush him. Jaune recalled all that buried anger that ignited once he came into contact with the Commissar. He pondered that thought as the crew walked to the sidewalk. With the four people on the street, none of them was watching the crew. So it means that they were in the clear.

Each of them walked along the street and Wolfe felt his pocket vibrate. He pulled out his scroll to see a message from his aunt. He opened it and with the light reflecting in his eyes, he smiled at a picture. Jacket and Neo noticed the expression, but they didn't see the need to question him on it. Wolfe was smiling as he closed his scroll.

The crew was in the Maelstrom district in downtown Vale. It was a rather nice looking neighborhood, all the newly built buildings, the well-dressed people, and the concrete park that served no reason but to look nice with a water fountain. The crew crossed the street as no car was heading their way.

"Hey guys, I'm going for a drink at the store over there, want anything?" Wolfe asked as he walked ahead of the group. Before he asked, he turned around and walked backwards. Neo nodded as she could use a soda. She stepped forward and she and Wolfe left on ahead.

"We'll be in the park." Jaune said as Wolfe waved his hand in response. Jaune chuckled at Wolfe and looked at Jacket.

"VVvvRT, you seem to be distressed." Jacket's tape recorder was in his hand. His face was rather blank. He looked on ahead to people walking by as he and Jaune reached a park bench.

"I'm just at a loss. Granted the Commissar was an asshole, but he never provoked me or anyone I know." Jaune shrugged as he sat down on the violet bench.

"VeeeRT, that may be, VRT but he was building strength to become a threat." Jacket sat down as well. "Vvrrt, I am evidence of that fact."

"What do you mean?" Jaune was dumbfounded by Jacket's response.

"eerrT, I was a tool. VRT, I would find myself in uncontrollable rage and by the time I realized what I've done…" Jacket pressed pause on his recorder. He took a deep breath, before he pressed play. "There was always a room full of bodies and a weapon in my hands."

"Damn… I would offer empathy Jacket, but I know I'd just be lying to you."

"VeerrVT, Thank you for trying to understand, it's alright. VRT, I could sense that you don't have any ill will to the people you're around. So for now, just let me process all of this." Jacket pressed stop on his recorder.

_Well, had we not have lead an assault on the Commissar, what would have happened to Jacket?_ Jaune started to remember the radio back when he was at Dion's Place with Wolfe before the dance. There was an opinion broadcast saying there has been a series of violent murders taking place in crime nests. It looked like some sort of bloody gang war. _I need to look into this later_.

When he came back from his thoughts, Jaune noticed Wolfe and Neo walking toward his location with a series of drinks in hand. A few soda and tea cans. Neo had a gentle smile as she passed Jaune a soda. _KISSCHAK!_

Jacket took sweet tea. Wolfe had clear soda and popped it open. Neo's drink was root beer. All of them relaxed for a moment. They enjoyed the silence of the street and park, until Jacket said something.

"EEvRT, I am hungry."

Neo looked to her left and right to see a small noodle stand. An elderly man with long grey hair was managing the cash register. His eyes were closed but he was still able work on the stand. Jacket and Wolfe shrugged as they looked at Neo. The two of them were hungry and didn't care where to eat. All of them had the same thought to eat at the stand. All of them walked to the stand and took a seat. The small red cloths were brushed aside. The man looked at Jacket.

Behind the man was a small white board with a marker hanging beside it and had a list of numbers and the servings they could acquire. Jacket saw what he wanted.

"EEvvrt, I would like the number four please." It was an order of beef flavored soba noodles, with side of egg stew.

"I'll get the number three." It was just and order of basic udon noodles. Neo looked at menu and nodded her head. She tapped Jaune's shoulder and pointed to her order.

"Oh yeah, please add a number two." It was Udon noodles mixed with fried fish meat as a side.

"I'll just have a number three as well." Wolfe said as he took his seat. He looked to the crew. "So Neo, why do you always carry an umbrella or parasol, whatever you call it?"

She looked at Wolfe. Her eyes blinked and they became a light pink color. She smirked and held her parasol backwards to lightly tap Wolfe's forehead.

"VVRRT, I believe that is your reason." Jacket smiled as he watched the old man cook. His mouth began to water as the noodles danced from the bubbles as it boiled.

"Meh. No one ever really thinks about how silence can be the loudest noise you can hear."

"I'm surprised that you would know that because you never shut up." Jaune wanted to be clever. Neo and Jacket liked the joke and both of their shoulders lifted up in silent giggles.

"Okay two things. First, that was uncalled for, and second, that was kinda creepy." Wolfe crossed his arms.

"That WAS pretty creepy." A voice said behind the crew. All of them turned around to see the blond chiseled Faunus, and his blue haired best friend. It was none other than Sun and Neptune, the transfer students.

"I didn't know you came out here Jaune." Neptune said as he looked around to the crew. All of them didn't have any secrets to Sun or Neptune, so their stares were pretty blank.

"I don't, just out here on occasion."

"That's cool." Sun replied as he looked over to see Jacket.

"I've never seen you before, what's your name?"

Jacket took out his recorder and didn't really have a response to that question.

"His name is Jack. He's a new student that will attend Beacon." Jaune answered.

"Okay. Well that's cool. I hope to see you guys around." Neptune said as Sun walked around the seats. He handed the old man some money and there was a box with food already made for them.

"Neptune and I come out here to get dinner. We came across this place since we were knocked off the highway."

"Wait what?" Wolfe said by reflex.

"Oh I guess team RWBY hasn't told you yet. They're apparently on the hunt for Roman Torchwick and there's something going on with White Fang. The two seem to be working together. On the same night the Tasteful nightclub was attacked, Roman Torchwick had a recruitment rally for the White Fang. Immediately, Blake and I were spotted and had to make our way out of there." Sun continued to blab his mouth. He wasn't ordered to not say anything to other people. "RWBY fought Torchwick in a mech suit and it happened under the highway. Right before they caught him, Blake told us some woman in red with a crimson sword appeared. Both sides fought to a standstill but the lady and Roman managed to get away."

_Then that must be from what I overheard them talking about_. Jaune thought as he absorbed the information. _A woman in red, I have no idea what's going on, but RWBY is doing some sort of investigation._

"We're kinda tired of being tag alongs to RWBY, so next time they need our help. We'll just wait until they ask." Neptune said as he felt a little disappointed. He wanted to help, but so far, he and Sun have just been getting in the way.

"I'm surprised Jaune." Neptune said and it pulled Jaune from space.

"Huh?"

"I've always seen you joined at the hip with your team. It's rather odd to see you with other people than them. You must be quite a social guy."

_Far from it actually_. "I guess. Since I'm caught up on my studies, I wanted to just do something else than sit in the dorms." Jaune lied through his teeth, well not for the education part.

"Well nice talking to you guys." Sun said as he and Neptune were ready to leave. Jaune said their goodbyes and the crew turned around. Jaune had a blank expression on his face, and the crew noticed it.

"I think-" Jaune was about to say something as a bowl of noodles was handed in front of him. The old man had a light smile as he passed other bowls of noodles to the crew. _I'll finish that thought later_. "Thank you sir." Jaune said as he used chopsticks to pull out the noodles and he slurped them with ease. The juices and the flavoring inside seeped into his taste buds. He was pretty dang hungry. Neo and Wolfe used chopsticks as well. Jacket didn't know how to use them so he took a small metal fork that was on display. All of them spent ten minutes eating their food. Wolfe and Jaune talked about the customs at Beacon to fill Jacket in. His expression remained calm but by his eyes, he was paying deep attention.

Neo didn't feel like going home on her own. She looked around and Wolfe turned to her as Jaune talked to Jacket.

"Did tonight sate your boredom?" Wolfe chuckled lightly.

Neo turned to Wolfe. Her expression turned sour, she was slightly offended by his response. Wolfe could tell since her lip winced as soon as he spoke to her. He thought she was pretty but other than that he didn't let the thought consume his mind. He knew he had Vivian, and there's no way he's going to miss a relationship with her. What Wolfe was curious about was why Neo stuck around. They payments were very generous.

_What's her angle?_ Wolfe thought to himself as she slurped up several noodles.

"So of all the times in combat, have you ever been part of a group?"

Neo shrugged in response.

"I can kind of say the same thing. We did a lot of missions and studied together…" Wolfe looked to the ground. "… Until I was replaced."

Neo raised an eyebrow.

"The reason why I'm telling you this is because if we're going to work together with Jaune, I just want to know if I can trust you." Wolfe was talking for the future, no matter what it may hold. He wasn't looking to impress or intrigue Neo; he just wanted to talk to her on a professional level.

Neo stuck her umbrella out for where she was sitting. She nodded and the handle was in front of Wolfe. She was offering a truce. Wolfe smiled as he took hold of the handle. Both of them shook hands. They never talked before in the past, but the reason why they tolerated each other in the beginning was because of Jaune. Both of them knew that.

"VVeerrT, Well, are we ready to go?" Jacket asked as he stood up. His stomach expanding with glee. It didn't break the pants, but that was the first meal in months he enjoyed.

"I think we are." Wolfe stood up after he passed a hundred lien bill into the old man's tip jar. All the members contributed the same amount of money. The old man smiled brightly as he started to close up shop.

The crew took the closest bus station to head toward the airship station to head back to Beacon. The walk was somewhat long. Wolfe and Jaune cracked jokes at each other's expense. Neo had her umbrella on her shoulder and had a light smile on the walk. Jacket was clam for the whole duration as well. They reached a bus and continued to Wolfe house. Barren and isolated like always.

Wolfe opened the door and walked to his couch. He dropped down and laid his back along the cushions. Jaune walked to his kitchen to take out a drink from the fridge. Neo and Jacket stood at the entrance and watched.

"Oh, welcome to my humble abode." Wolfe spread his arms apart. He felt pretty tired, but alert enough to last for one more hour.

As Jaune took sip from his drink, he recalled how Jacket was able to endure being tased by the police droids.

"Hey uh, Jacket. How are you able to take such punishment?" Jaune asked. Neo and Wolfe were interested as well.

Jacket looked toward Wolfe and noticed a stun gun beside him. He pointed his index finger at it and Wolfe caught on, he grabbed it and lightly tossed it to Jacket. Neo walked around Jacket and stood beside Jaune.

Jacket looked around and noticed that all of them were watching. With him turning the stun gun on, it cracked the air as ribbons of blue flashed along the teeth of the stun gun. He tugged his left sleeve back so his skin was exposed. Before any of them could talk, Jacket put the stun gun to his skin. He applied a fair amount of voltage. He wasn't fazed by his self-inflicted pain. He pulled the stun gun away and blinked. He took a deep breath then looked to the others.

"Oh I get it. You're Semblance is electricity." Daniel personal clarified.

The same way as Neo has her mirror cast ability, every single human being, Faunus included have a nice ability to use from summoning their auras. So in the case of Jacket, he's capable of absorbing electricity and convert it to instant energy for his body. He can over charge himself but it leaves him exhausted at the end. With a proper amount of focus, Jacket could expel the electricity from his body.

On the case of Semblance for everyone, it's all different and often unique.

"Look out Tasers." Wolfe chuckled.

"Yep, this is the place you'll be staying while attending Beacon." Jaune said before taking a drink from his cup. Wolfe's eyes widened and he sat up from his couch.

"Say what now?"

"You have ears." Jaune chuckled at Wolfe's expense. "I live in a dorm with a team, Neo is a transfer student and being social might ruin her cover at Beacon. You however have a nice PAID off house, with two spare bedrooms." Jaune moved his hand forward and back. "You see where I'm going with this?"

"But but." Wolfe stammered as Jaune chugged the last of his drink. He sat the cup down on a nightstand that sat beside the couch.

"Okay-thanks-we'll-see-you-at-Beacon-tomorrow-bye." Jaune said as he shoved Neo out and closed the front door. Jaune and Neo jogged along the sidewalk. Jacket stood there and blinked.

"VRT, You got screwed over." Jacket chuckled; his voice didn't seep out as he was still silent.

"Yeah whatever, come on. I guess I'll show you to your new room."

"EeeeVT, Thank you very much."

"Don't mention it, now come on." Wolfe shook his head as he led Jacket upstairs.

Outside, Neo and Jaune walked to the airship station and had to wait fifteen minutes until the next one arrives. Jaune reached into his pocket and dialed up Bain. Neo stood beside Jaune.

"Dale's repair service." Bain said in his usual snarky tone. He only did that to try to piss Jaune off. But for now, Jaune didn't frankly care.

"Am I clear?" Jaune asked.

"… You're clear. So what is that you need right now?" Bain replied.

"I need you to craft a new identity." Jaune said as he looked around. No one watching him, so he felt a little in the clear.

"For who?" Bain asked. Doing something like this was a pretty common request; he could make a fake name, history, and occupation. It just comes down to the person is willing to portray when asked about it.

"A new friend of mine, he doesn't have a name, but he has the first alias as Jack. From there, I want you to have him come from far, far away, and he's good enough to be a hunter attending Beacon. He looks to be seventeen or eighteen, preferably seventeen so he can stay close to his contacts."

"And would you like fries with that?" Bain joked.

"Yes I would. So can you do it?"

"Sure." Bain started to type away on his keyboard. "I saw you work on the Commissar, now that's some pretty nice stuff. I wasn't expecting you to hit all three targets at once."

"I love surprising people." Jaune said before he closed his scroll. But before he pressed end on it. Another thought appeared in his head. Jaune sighed as he lifted his scroll back to his ear.

"Hey, we've found Jack as a prisoner of the Commissar, the thing is, he doesn't remember who he is. Do you by any chance do identity searches?" Jaune rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah I can do that, but it's a mighty large fee. You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. A good starting point is that Jack's semblance is electricity." Jaune said.

"Alright good, it may take weeks and even months to find out the info you need, okay?" Bain pointed out.

"I'm prepared for that. Thanks Bain. "Jaune as he closed his scroll. Neo blinked as she looked at Jaune.

"I know Jacket is new to us and all, but he doesn't recall his real name or past... Maybe it'll help him when I get the information. If he doesn't need it, then I'll just burn what Bain sends me."

Neo shrugged as she looked forward to see an airship approaching five minutes early. The time was 8:32 pm. The whole job took less than an hour to complete and that's a record in of itself. Jaune smiled lightly as the Payday Gang had pulled it off and had to help another individual get back on his feet. _Eh, there's no need to worry about it further_. Neo and Jaune entered the airship and returned to Beacon.

Jaune walked through the courtyard as Neo walked the opposite direction. It was rather dark out and so walking with the evening air in the yard was rather nice. Jaune kept his eyes straight. He felt rather light without his duffle bag, but he trusted Twitch to do his part of his job. He had to deliver the crew's equipment to Wolfe's house the next day to avoid suspicion.

"Where have you been all night?" A voice appeared behind Jaune.

"GAH!" Jaune flinched as he turned around rather quickly.

Jaune recognized the voice to be Blake. She was in her usual attire with a book in hand. She looked at Jaune with a calm expression.

"Oh hey Blake, what chu' doing here?" He said as his heart rate slowed down to be calm again.

"I'm Faunus remember? I just like to sit in the trees with a good book. I saw you come back with that transfer girl. She a friend?"

"You could say that." Jaune bluffed.

"Really? What is she then?" Blake asked and she really didn't have any ulterior motive.

_SHIT!_ Jaune started running his mouth before he thought it through. "Wolfe and Neo know a new student that's going to attend Beacon. He's shy around people, so Wolfe asked me to help him in showing the student around Beacon to help him get used to the place because of my personality. Neo tagged along because she was bored. When we were done, we ate at a noodle stand downtown, after that I came back here. That was what I did basically this evening. The new student's name is Jack by the way." Jaune took a deep breath. He looked at Blake.

She was snickering at him.

"Well okay then. Seriously Jaune you need to know when to calm down." Blake walked past him with her 'Ninjas of Love book 9' in her hand. _She really must have been reading._

"Alrighty then. I just wanted to ask you what did we have to do in Port's class yesterday? You probably noticed that I was absent." Blake said. Her overall body language was that she wasn't interrogating Jaune.

"Oh that? Port wanted to have us do a worksheet… After he rambled on about his fight with a Nevermore." Jaune's heart rate balanced out.

"Okay, that's all I really wanted to know." Blake said as she walked off. "I'll see you later."

"See ya." Jaune waved. _I need to be careful when I return to Beacon if I want to keep my cover intact._

Jaune walked up to his dorms main entrance and opened the doorway. The hall was lit dimly to signify to the students to go to sleep. Jaune began to feel rather tired himself. As he approached his dorm, he noticed that both his team's door and RWBY's door was opened. _What's going on?_

Out walks Nora with Ruby. The two were talking about something. Then along the floor, a short brown and white dog followed closely behind. _Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Zwei_. Jaune got close enough to his door to see Pyrrha on the floor with a small tie and was pulling on it in a tug of war with Zwei.

_Now I see why Blake is avoiding her room_. Jaune entered the room.

Ren was the first one to see him. "Hey how did it go with your friends?"

"Huh?" Jaune asked as he walked to his bed.

"Neptune and Sun said they saw you downtown. With some other friends of yours. Wolfe I think, Nero, and some new student."

"Her name is NEO, and the new student is named Jack. Wolfe wanted me to help him show Jack around town."

"Okay." Ren lowered his head to lean against the wall. Nora, Pyrrha, and Ruby sat in a triangle formation and rolled a ball around them for Zwei to chase after.

Jaune joined in playing with Zwei. Each of them took turns and after an hour, Zwei finally calmed down. Ruby took him back to her dorm.

Pyrrha and Ren were tasked to cook dinner that night from their system of taking turns. Pyrrha and Ren chose to cook spaghetti since it was simple. Ren sliced up tomatoes, and mixed it with spices to make a special sauce to give the food a nice fresh taste. Nora would have preferred something sweet, but she ate the most out of her team.

"So Jaune, has Mercury been a smartass lately?" Pyrrha asked as she twisted her fork on the noodles. Ren was confused by the notion so he tuned his ears.

"Nah, he was just having a bad day back then. He's cool now."

"Pyrrha told me what happened. If he becomes a jerk again, I'll break his legs." Nora smiled from her blatant threat.

"You scare me sometimes Nora." Jaune stated.

"I've been telling her that for years. But it literally just goes in one ear and out the other. It's like trying to move a mountain. You can fool yourself, but in reality, you can't move it." Ren took a bite of his food.

"He's right, there was this one time, and he tried to talk me out of getting eggs from a Nevermore nest in the Emerald Forrest."

"…But that was this morning…" Jaune looked in the corner of the room to see two giant Nevermore eggs. Both were wrapped in blankets.

"We are SO ready for breakfast tomorrow." Nora exclaimed. She leaned forward to eat another serving of spaghetti.

"I'm not even going to question the logic in that." Jaune did a light laugh at the end of his statement. Sure he already ate earlier but having to sit around and have meal with his main team, it was rather enjoyable moment he didn't want to miss out on.

"It makes sense when you don't think about it." Ren nodded.

"So Pyrrha, what are you going to do for the tournament?" Jaune already knew the answer.

"Like always, just fight and see who wins… Oh yeah. Did you know that there's going to be a team based competition as well this year? We can make teams outside our assigned team as well." Pyrrha added. She took hold of her cup and drank some water. Pyrrha never drinks soda in the evenings, only for lunch.

"So I was thinking, when it's time to register… could you help me out Jaune?" Pyrrha asked. From any other observer, they could tell that Pyrrha was nervous on her request. Only a real thick headed dumbass wouldn't notice.

"Of course Pyrrha, we're partners remember?" Jaune responded. Ren looked forward and face palmed his forehead. Nora didn't know what was going on and continued to enjoy her meal. Pyrrha smiled in response.

(When the partners are assigned from the entrance exam, a la being tossed in a forest to see if you'll live. All the new student explore the forest and when they come across a person and make eye contact. That person will be part of your team and will help you until you graduate from Beacon. Kinda odd but that is how the RWBY show rolls.)

The team continued with more small talk and when they finished, did their own thing until they went to sleep.

Back at Wolfe's place

"No no nonono!" Wolfe shouted. There was the sound of blood splattering in his house. He continued to chant no until the blood sounds ended.

"FATALITY!" The TV blared in bright golden letters.

"I swear you're cheating at this game." Wolfe lifted his controller up.

"VRT, It's not cheating when it's allowed in the game." Jacket smiled as he pressed a button on his controller for a rematch.

"Fine, Best out of 9." Wolfe pressed his controller to play another round in the game. The two played the game for a couple more hours that night, until a late night pizza showed up.

The Next day

The morning came rather well. The night before, it was Friday. Jaune was worried if the crew needed more time, it wouldn't risk what they had going on that Saturday. Nora tried to crack the Nevermore eggs. It couldn't be cracked by conventional means, so she used her hammer to smash it open for the yolk to be drained into a pan.

It was another morning of pancakes. Jaune didn't mind, but he would go crazy if he had to eat that stuff for the next three years. Pyrrha and Nora wondered off to the gym to do some partner based exercises as Ren went into town to get some new books to read. In actuality, he just did it so he could get away from Nora.

Jaune was in the courtyard enjoying the morning air and sunlight as he sat down under the same tree he would meet Wolfe. Jaune didn't have any homework to do, and when he actually had time to himself, he was rather bored. Whenever Jaune had alone time, he would go buy comic books or be asked to do something for one of his sisters.

"Meh, it's not so bad." Jaune leaned back. He was waiting there that day, because Wolfe and Jacket were on their way to Beacon to get Jacket registered. He looked on ahead to see team CRDL playing a game of football with another team.

Jaune continued to look over the courtyard. Footsteps approached from his right. He didn't turn his head as he already knew who it was.

"Lovely day isn't it?" Jaune knew the question was rhetorical.

"Just by your perception." Cinder said as she sat down on the grass. She fanned her mouth as she yawned. "I understand Neo helped you on a personal matter."

"Yep. Don't worry I still paid her for her work." There was a gentle wind that had the grass dance in waves.

"Intriguing, did the Commissar put up much of a fight?" Cinder asked.

"He was a tough bastard. But other than that, his whole operation is in shambles." Jaune said as he opened his scroll to pull up a news article of the attacks.

**Police Raids Stopped Local Drug Lord**. The article read. All accounts of the Payday Gang were put under wraps by the police service. With the serious overwhelming evidence to show the police's incompetence on the matter would have any officer feel the need to lie.

"Hmm." Cinder acknowledged the image on Jaune's scroll.

"On days such as these, I wonder if people think if it amounts to anything." Jaune stated.

"Can we not argue philosophy? I'm not in the mood to debate." Cinder rolled her eyes.

"Fine by me." Jaune said as he reached to his right to pull out a water bottle from his bag.

…

… ...

… … …

"We really have nothing to talk about." Jaune thought out loud.

"It would seem that way."

"Still bored about the world?" Jaune recalled one of Cinder's earlier statements.

"Oh indeed, in every waking moment." Cinder was wearing casual clothes that day. She had a red long sleeve shirt with golden lines that made the shirt looked like dancing fire. Her pants were black pants with a grey reflection.

"Have you ever seen a 12 year old girl cook meat loaf, homemade bread, and a homemade pizza before?" It was a thought that Jaune felt like asking. Deep down, he craved having that meal again. It's been six months since he hugged little Anna. The house of the surrounding tree houses with tiny bridges. In the middle of the Alistar forest of the Arc family household.

"What?"

"It's a yes or no question." Jaune replied. There was nothing but a brief pause. "So is it a yes or no?"

"No, how would that even apply to-" Cinder rambled on until Jaune cut her off.

"I've seen it. It's a rather amazing sight. A girl half my height with a one foot tall chief's hat. She has a personal box to stand on all the time. A set of utensils she asks for every birthday. She never asks for much, just for everyone to come around the table by helping my mother." Jaune continued to reminisce.

"Why tell me this?" Cinder was completely confused. For her, that never happens unless she underestimates something she's studying.

"There is no reason too. Like you said, you don't want to argue philosophy. I'm just making conversation." Jaune's voice remained leveled and sincere.

"No I haven't seen a 12 year girl cook."

"Here you are, the great Cinder Fall, she hasn't seen everything and is yet bored of the world."

There was tinge of anger in Cinder's mind. But it wasn't a serious insult so she let it slide.

"How about a 20 year old girl that plays Grifball for college? She's backup to the defensive lineman."

"No I haven't seen that either." Cinder was beginning to wonder if she was going to be prodded by questions.

Jaune thought of Clarity Adele Arc. His third oldest sister. The one who would play sports to show that the boys aren't the only ones that can play. Jaune remembered when he was small, that a group of boys wouldn't let him play Caboose Tag. He didn't cry about it and wondered into the forest. Clarity found him and figured out why he was so distressed. She went out there and stood her ground and put those boys in their place. Since then, Clarity had a talent and lust for sports. Jaune felt liquid emotion drift down his left cheek. It wasn't in the sight of Cinder so he downplayed the thought by wiping it away before she could notice.

"What about a girl that can recite the movies of Spruce Willis has appeared in and played a cameo in? She can watch any movie and notice things you never thought about before. She watches any kind of movie, to the point of owning three closets full of Blu-Rays movies. She also enjoys psychology, and is majoring in that field of study." Jaune continued.

The sister he was thinking of, was his middle sister who was the fourth of the seven. Age 19, she enjoyed to make Jaune suffer. When he was six years old, she had him watch a movie called 'Evil Dead.' Jaune was so paralyzed by fear, he couldn't move from the couch or go anywhere in the house. From his expense of scarring him, Jaune had become familiar with horror movies. All of his other sisters got after Kyru Samantha Arc. She also like to be referred to as 'Ki.'

"What next, going to tell me about a girl that can breathe underwater, save lives by singing, or better yet kill Grimm with her mind?" Cinder said as she was slightly annoyed by Jaune's statements.

Jaune looked at Cinder. With that, he learned just a bit more of Cinder. He stored the memory in his head as he could use it again later.

"No, I guess you're not that interested." Jaune said as he lowered his head.

"You got anything to talk about?"

Cinder was a bit taken aback by that response. She expected Jaune to have some sort of clever retort at her expense. Yet here he was, willing to drop his questions. _Who are these girls he's referring to?_ Cinder disregarded that thought as she remembered what Jaune said to her back at the cafeteria.

'Today I am dirty and tomorrow I'll just be dirt.' She remembered for the most part. From her research from being bored that night. Cinder learned it was a quote said by a man named Carl Panzram. A tribal man who was arrested and convicted of rape, arson, and was a serial killer. Cinder felt a little offended by Jaune telling her about him. Not that the man isn't interesting but it could have been a well thought out insult to her person.

"I figured out who were referring to in that quote you told me." Cinder stated. From here, she would pay close attention to what Jaune had to say.

"You think I'm just bad as him." Cinder's thought manifested itself into words.

"No, I just wanted you to learn about him. Carl Panzram, a man that killed 21 people and sodomized a 1,000 men. In and out of prison his whole life. His time came to end by being hanged by the neck until dead."

"What's your point?" Cinder said with bits of venom in her tone.

"That man believed in the rage that consumed his life. He hated everyone, everything, and found pleasure at destroying other people's lives. Whether they lived or died." Jaune turned to Cinder. "He confessed his crimes to a security guard in prison. It was all kept and documented."

"So you're saying I'm just as bad if not worse than him?" Cinder wanted to get the root of what Jaune talked about.

"No. But did you know what he said before he hanged?" Jaune left a dramatic pause. "He said, 'I wish the entire human race had one neck and I had my hands around it.' That same man would label himself as 'rage personified.'"

"What's your point?!" Cinder frowned as the world around Jaune and Cinder faded. It was nothing but utter blackness. Jaune risking his own life again to the woman that had new control over his life.

"There isn't one. I just wanted to tell you about him." Jaune leaned away from Cinder. "I've always had been labeled as a Loser, a screw up, and a goof ball. Often times, I believed the people who would call me that. The only people that haven't said that to me was my sisters, Wolfe, and Pyrrha. I never amounted to anything, so in an act of rage, I cheated my way into Beacon… I'm not even supposed to be here in the first place. Yet here I'm a leader of a team, technically two teams when you think about it." Jaune laid his body completely back. He stared through the leaves of the tree. "No one is perfect, I know that fact all too well. I'm a loser, and I believe that other people have the right to call me that. I couldn't amount to anything. Yet here I am, planning out jobs to risk my life and others for the sake of profit. Just last night, I could have killed a man, yet I just took away his ability to fight with weapons to prove a point."

Cinder remained quiet.

"That man is still alive and weakened. His legacy destroyed, and profits being seized. So here I am. I've come to realize something about myself. I am starting to enjoy the jobs I'm doing. I feel like I can accomplish something, to the point I surpass my own expectations. Last night, I did what you told me, _It's not about overpowering my opponents, it's about taking what power they have._ I decided to try to apply that statement. The outcome of it is, I feel accomplished, I'd never felt proud of myself in the past." Jaune yawned and he fanned his mouth.

"You hold the key to me helping you. When you're done, I'll return to the normal Loser Jaune Arc. To which I have no problems with as long as my Teams do what they need in life. There isn't anything to be taken away from this Cinder. Just the confession of a nobody feeling drunk with newfound accomplishment. I'm worried I could become addicted."

Jaune turned his head. "So Cinder, what's on your mind?"

Cinder absorbed all that she was told. "I think you're thinking about this WAY too much." Cinder downplayed what she was told.

"Heh, such a thought would be stupid huh?"

"It just depends on how you perceive it." Cinder responded.

"I guess." Jaune shrugged, his back was still on the grass and he didn't move far.

"Hey Jaune!" Wolfe called out. Jaune and Cinder looked over toward the sidewalk of the courtyard.

Wolfe and Jacket were walking with duffle bags in hand and had happy expressions.

"Welp, I gotta go. See you later." Jaune leaned up and was about to lift his backpack.

"Hold on." Cinder said.

"What is it?"

"Do you still have your reading material to pass the time?" Cinder tilted her head as she asked the question.

Jaune reached for his bag and took out a water bottle. Nothing else was inside that Jaune kept in the bag. But as the rest of the contents. It was filled to the brim with comic books. Jaune lowered the bag to Cinder.

"Here, just give them back when you're done." Jaune pointed out. He didn't wait for a response as he jogged to Wolfe and Jacket. The three of them walked off to the main building to see Mr. Ozpin.

Cinder watched them walk off as she turned to Jaune's bag. She moved the zipper. When she did, a dozen or so comic books spilled out of the bag. All were wrapped in plastic protected covers. The first one on top was a comic book titled 'Project Freelancer' it had an image of woman with red hair in light blue armor fighting what appeared to be a legion of aliens.

_I __wonder what__ all the rage about this form of literature is. I guess I'll find out._ Cinder thought as she opened the comic book and started to read it as a brief breeze of wind brushed along the grass. It provide a nice cool feeling to the courtyard.

**I've received a question of why I have "VVReeT" phrases whenever Jacket talks. That is just me trying to make a sound effect of a tape recorder rewinding or fast forwarding as Jacket talks with the recorder. I love that feature in the game.** **For the sake of the story, he's keeping his boxing tape and he won't use the latex gloves. A huge plot hole I know, but I love his design too much to change it. The "Today I am dirty and tomorrow I'll just be dirt." Was me quoting an actual person that lived. I wasn't referring to the Marilyn Manson's song. Thank you for reading.**

**Supernoob257:** Yeah, writing in Jacket will be interesting. The next set of jobs has me pretty excited. I hope you'll be excited to read it.

**Drow79:** Thanks for accepting Jacket. I'll do my best in writing the story.

**Buddy:** Jacket used a droids arm to slap the Commissar. He's all human. I'll do my best to be creative. Have a great day.

**Iandude:** Jacket will have a pretty interesting time in Beacon. I'll do my best in writing it. Also you are very perceptive on Jaune's well-being. That's great and I enjoy people understanding it. Have an excellent day.

**MightyPrussia:** Yeah sorry we didn't get much of Jacket at Beacon yet. But that is for the next chapter most definitely. Thanks for labeling your thought as a suggestion. Who knows what will ultimately happen.

**RTFan:** Thank you so much for liking the story. Have an wonderful day.

**Petty Officer 'Waffles: **I like that song in the game as well. Oh no, I hope I didn't activate some form of PTSD of the Hotline Miami heist. JK. I'm ecstatic you feel that way. I'm very happy on how you felt that way. It really helps me feel motivated. Thank you so much for liking Jacket in the story, I was worried that people would dislike how I introduced him. Wow, I've never had someone use the word 'giddy' before. For that I'm extremely honored by your support. Also, don't worry about getting the Alesso Heist for me. I'm going to get it myself and I'm excited to see if I could implement the heist into the story. Very nice quote at the end. Have a most awesome day.

**Gamerandartist35:** Something like that is always something to worry about in Jaune's case. I'm getting excited to write more later on. Have a kickass day.


	16. Chapter 16, In the Face of Evil

**Okay, if you want to read a cool Payday story to read, I recommend "**Hungry like the Wolf**" by RyderRosas. It just started out a while back, but he has an interesting beginning of Wolf as a leader of his own crew. He deserves a read. Personal, I think they aren't enough Payday stories on this site. The song for this one is "**In the Face of Evil**" by Magic Sword.**

**The Link: ** watch?v=sV_Cagi25O8

"So man, what took you guys so long?" Jaune asked as he walked beside Jacket. He wasn't in his actual letterman jacket. He was in what looked to be a grey t-shirt with black pants and he wore blue sneakers. Jacket looked around and absorbed the view of the school.

"Oh nothing just stayed up late last night playing Fatal Encounters. This bastard here was really cheap playing as Beetle last night." Wolfe rubbed the front of his face. He had several dark lines under his eyes.

Jacket looked at them but remained silent. He didn't look to have his tape recorder on hand.

"Oh you mean that new fighting game right?" Jaune clarified.

"Yeah, it's pretty fun, but now that this guy." Wolfe pointed his thumb to Jacket, "he ruined it."

Jaune glanced at Jacket but didn't see a recorder in hand. "So Jack, why didn't you bring your voice box?"

Jacket looked at Jaune and shrugged, he then turned his eyes to Wolfe.

"Jacket made a good point this morning that using a recorder is too dangerous in public. You know with all the unknown people we've come across." Wolfe pointed out.

"That's right, I forgot about that." Jaune put his hand over his chin. _The tape recorder is a nice tool and all, but wouldn't Jacket need to use something more efficient later on?_ Jaune remembered. _Oh yeah, his name is 'Jack' in public… which reminds me_.

"Did we get the stuff from Twitch?" Jaune and the two others were getting close to the main building which housed Ozpin's office.

"Yeah, he left the gear at the drop off point. As well as an envelope of Jack's new identity for the school." Wolfe said as they approached the main door. There were other people in the distance, but none were close enough to listen or care about their conversation. Jack was the first to reach the door and held it open for the other two.

"His name is Jack Alburn for the school. He's from the southwest nomadic tribe as they train fighters to use whatever they can get their hands on. He's '17' years old and has a history of fighting Grimm. His mentor died and he wanted to come to Beacon as a wish to fulfill on behalf of the mentor." Wolfe cleared up with as they entered the building. "Jack here, doesn't talk much and but still wants to become a huntsman. We'll go over the finer details later."

"Got it." Jaune walked to the elevator and pressed a button. The three started to talk.

…

"I agree Jack, the price of bullets nowadays are getting out of hand." Wolfe chuckled.

…

"I know right, I was hoping to figure out what I wanted to do for a special ranged weapon design." Jaune included himself on the ruse.

…

_BING_. The door finally opened up as three other students were in the elevator first. Jaune recognized them as the members from another well rounded team. There was a student with black hair and his wall combed back into a short ponytail. He had a narrowed expression looked like he was upset. The second student was a kid with shoulder length hair but was a boy. His chin had a small patch of whiskers and his face looked like a growing beard. His demeanor was that of a cold stare. The third student was a young kid who looked to be general mellow. He had an oval nose, with green eyes and looked to be in his mid-teens compared to most the students in Beacon.

"Fuck…" Wolfe mumbled as he was the first one to see the passengers of elevator. Jaune and Jacket were confused on what Wolfe was talking about.

The three students walked out. No words were said as the students exited the elevator. The youngest one stopped, he opened his mouth and was about to say something but no word escaped his lips.

"Don't worry about it. The team can still function with you and the new guy." Wolfe said before the youngest teammate could say anything.

"Are you sure, I can try to talk to my brother." The kid responded.

"Don't, it's clear how they feel." Wolfe waved his left hand to figuratively brush the topic aside. The kid looked like he was going to say something until the narrow faced teammate called out to him.

"Oi, fuckwit. We gotta go. Nathan's got a mission for us." The narrow headed on looked like he was somewhat annoyed. The team with the whiskers didn't say anything as he just watched the two of them.

"I gotta go."

"Tell Hoxton I still think he's an asshole." Wolfe told the kid before he left. He chuckled and nodded before he jogged off to catch up to his team. Wolfe glimpsed at the one with whiskers and frowned.

Jaune nodded his head to the elevator as Wolfe talked to the kid. Both of them were interested in what was going on with Wolfe but they the two had too much respect for personal space to violate it. Jaune was ready to press the button as Jacket kept his hand out to prevent the door from closing.

Wolfe turned around and entered the elevator. "Before you morons ask. Those guys were my old team. The youngest is named Daniel Steele… My partner. The other two is Hoxton and Wick. Let's leave it at that."

Jacket looked at Jaune. He shrugged as anything that could be said could just worsen the situation. Jaune pressed the button as the doors closed.

"Did Bain send the documents?"

Jacket took out a rather thick envelope and showed it to Jaune.

"A fake id, birth certificate, and place of residence. The works." Wolfe responded. His expression of suppressed anger subsided. He let his hatred toward Wick drift from thought. No use in dwelling on it for the moment.

"It says here, you're from the western nomadic tribe?" Jaune asked as the light to the floor kept shifting to different numbers.

"Yeah, that can excuse his lack of real identification."

"What do we do when Ozpin asks us any real questions?" Jaune needed to clarify.

"Then we down play the info and be as vague as possible." Wolfe wasn't convinced by his own words as well. "That's all we got."

"Fine." Jaune concluded seeing the number shift into the 14th floor the main building. The doors opened as there was a wide room with a single desk on the other end. Above them was a series of gears for the clock tower to operate. Why Ozpin would risk his own safety with dangerous machinery above him confused Jaune. It just made his office look unique. Though the large room is a bit much in his responsibility as the Headmaster. He sat in his rather oversized chair that can twist around. And so, Ozpin did his dramatic twirl around with a mug in hand.

"Enjoying the turn around?" Jaune asked out loud as the crew entered the room.

"Oh indeed, one of the perks of this position." Ozpin said before taking a sip from his mug. "So this new student wants to attend Beacon academy?"

"Yes professor." Wolfe responded.

"You do know there is a strict entrance exam and skills test that needs to be done as part of the task of attending right? He will have to prove himself in a test of my creation in order for this to go through." Ozpin turned to Jacket. "So your name is Jack Alburn."

Jacket nodded. He couldn't do much as he desired his tape recorder.

"So Jack, what makes you want to attend Beacon Academy?" Ozpin rose from his chair and walked around his desk to approach the three boys. In the distance, Headmistress Goodwitch watched their behavior. She wanted to comment on how creepy Ozpin can be at times.

"You're semblance is electricity?" He read from Jacket.

Jacket nodded.

"You don't like to speak do you?"

Jacket pursed his lips, widened his eyes, and raised his shoulders. Jaune and Wolfe never learned the reason why Jacket doesn't like to speak. They wanted to ask, but they just met Jacket, so it could be something to learn over time.

"Very well, I'm all about the equality of people. You may wish to do your test in any way your chose. Are you prepared for such a task?" Ozpin knew talking would be a waste of time. Especially for the Headmistress.

Jacket looked over his shoulder to Jaune and Wolfe. The two shrugged to him and Jacket turned back to Ozpin. He nodded again.

"Good." Ozpin walked back to his desk and did something with his scroll. The three boys stood there in silence watching Ozpin type something and moved several papers out the way. After twenty seconds, he finished what he was doing. Then a thought struck Jaune. _Jacket doesn't have a weapon_.

"Pss, what are we going to do about Jacket's weapon situation?" Jaune leaned in to Wolfe.

"Don't worry about it. We worked on it last night."

"Wait really?" Jaune instinctively leaned his head back.

"Yeah, seriously." Wolfe felt a little annoyed to repeat himself. "He can literally charge himself. So he stayed up all night and morning working on it."

Jacket turned to Jaune and opened his bag again to see a dark blue object inside. Jaune couldn't see exactly what it was. When he looked at it, Ozpin looked back at the group.

"Well, we're all ready now. Come on gentlemen." Ozpin stood up and walked around his desk toward the elevator. With his coffee mug in hand as well.

_I wonder what happens when someone takes that mug away from him_.

"Uh, Headmaster. Where are you going?" Wolfe asked.

"To the Arena, to test Jack for his entrance exam. If he passes, then he's welcome to attend class here. If not, then he will have to be sent home." The elevator doors opened as the Headmistress was standing inside. "Well, aren't you coming?"

The crew walked across the office toward the elevator and the group walked to the main arena. No class was using it at the moment so it was vacant. There inside stood two other instructors, Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck. Both of them were standing above in the seats. The two didn't have the light expressions they usually have and were in complete observation mode. In the bleachers, a dozen or so students entered the arena as well to watch.

"I would say I got a bad feeling, but that'll just be redundant." Jaune said knowing full well his statement was also useless.

"We get it." Wolfe answered for Jacket.

"So Jack, stand in the middle and wait for your test to start." Ozpin said as he walked beside his fellow instructors. The Headmistress had her PDA in hand as she was going to be the overseer to the upcoming test. Jaune and Wolfe stood beside Jacket as the three walked to the middle.

"Your support is commendable Jaune and Tomas, but this is for Jack alone." Ozpin stated. The other instructors nodded.

"Good luck out there." Wolfe stated. He shouldered the bag Jacket carried. Before it was passed to him, Jacket took out a dark blue weapon handled. It appeared to be modeled after the advance police Breaching tool. On one end, there is a large heavy bulk in shape of a hammer. While on the far other end, there was a crowbar shape at the end. It was a two in one weapon, but that wasn't the kicker. The inside rather long handle was weapon parts. It was proven to Jaune as Jacket pressed a button on his weapon. It shifted into an adaption of a Mossberg 500 Cruiser pump action shotgun. So just by looking at it, the weapon would look heavy as hell. He nodded to Jaune and Wolfe.

"How the hell did he get that done so soon?"

"I was just as surprised. Well we had the outer layers designed to be scorch proof and as well as being able to shift. The outer layer molds into the hammer form. The grip section of the gun is all in the head of the hammer. This is just the rough design, Jacket and I will improve upon it later." Wolfe pointed out. His mouth felt dry._Why am I the one stuck having to explain everything?_

"So then Mr. Alburn. This is test of your skill and how adept you are. Pass this and we'll take you into consideration." Headmistress Goodwitch pressed something on her PDA. She pressed a final button. "Begin the test."

The lights above darkened out as the crowd fade from view. Jacket braced himself as in the darkness, a set of crimson orbs appeared at the edge of the light. Jacket couldn't see what exactly it was so he stood still. He waited for his target to leave the darkness.

**Play the song here**

Hissss.

That was all that was needed for any Hunter in training. There was a long slender creature came into view. The series of teeth eager for the sweet rush of flesh and blood. This creature prefers to bleed out its prey then consume it. The amount of blood can sate the creature for weeks or months depending on the level of appetite.

Jacket lifted his weapon into his hands as he waited for his target to come into view. A King Taijtu. A snake like creature that has a long figure and that has a head for both ends of the body. A conjoined Grimm.

Here the beast finally exposed one head. The Dark head while the White head was still hidden from view. The King Taijtu has the two head as different color of White and Black, both heads usually know to hunt in unison and so the White head was waiting for its moment to attack.

Jacket sprinted forward as the approached Dark head with the sets of teeth exposed. The first tactic of the Taijtu is to isolate the target to panic. So the head swerved to the right but remained in view. So Jacket countered against it by shifting his weapon into the gun form and blasted several shells to the skin. It's not a Death Stalker so the skin is rather fragile.

The creature writhed in pain as the Dark head got into position. It was lowered and charged at Jacket. The mouth began to expose itself for a bite. Jacket responded in kind fire off three shells as the first one missed but the other two struck the tongue of the Taijtu. The head was knocked off course. As Jacket released the pump and exposed the chamber, the White head appeared to press on the attack.

Jacket refused to load the weapon and had it shift into the hammer variant. Then the mouth was upon him. He lifted it up as it was caught at the bridge of the mouth. The pointed tongue wiggled in view that disgusted Jacket. All the saliva strings and the teeth. The view was vibrating as the mouth applied pressure to the hammer. Jacket smiled deviously as he pressed another button on his weapon for the handle to expand, causing the mouth to become wider despite the pressure. Then there was a prolonged _Crack_ sound. The mouth pulled back as Jacket grabbed his hammer on the way out.

The upper jaw of the Taijtu was broken as the mouth was hanging out and the tongue was exposed like a dog. Jacket felt proud of being alive, that was until, a tongue wrapped around his waist. He was pulled back as the Dark head came into view. Jacket reacted quickly enough to reverse his hammer for the crowbar end to jam into the lip of the Taijtu.

It screeched in pain but it didn't let Jacket go. So he had to get creative. He had his other hand touch the skin as much as it made his crawl. He knew what he was about to do was risky. His palm had cracks of blue light and it only got larger and brighter, Jacket turned himself in a conduit of electricity. So it Taijtu lost control of its nerves and Jacket was released. He dropped to the floor and rolled along. His weapon by his side. He expelled all the extra energy he stored in that desperate move. Now both heads were pissed as they rallied in the darkness.

Jacket quickly lifted the weapon and the handle revealed the chamber for the shells. He loaded five as quick as he could as the heads showed themselves. He loaded what he could and pumped it. It was primed for the next onslaught. So with a careful move, Jacket stood his ground and waited for the next attack.

The White head opened its mouth to the point of the teeth were pointed directly at Jacket. It was getting ready to fire several teeth at him. The same way as Nevermores being able to launch their feathers like projectiles.

The Dark head however lowered itself to the ground as it was about to be covered on approach. Jacket braced himself. Both heads launched the assault. Three teeth were launched from its socket. (Three foot pointed cones that pose as teeth.)

One struck the ground in front of Jacket as it shattered and the tooth splintered about forming shrapnel. The idea was to impale him or blind him. The second sped past his left shoulder and he lifted the top of the hammer and angled it upward. The third tooth struck the very center. Jacket felt the force of the blow as the tooth shattered and the Dark head was closing in. Jacket reacted as he dropped the hammer close enough to the ground. He reeled it back in preparation.

The Dark head was upon Jacket as he launched it forward in a perfect golf swing and knocked the Taijtu head off balance. Jacket was don't being on the defensive. He continued with the momentum as he lifted it upward so the hammer was high above his head. An incoming tooth was coming in at that moment. Jacket predicted the trajectory so by the time the hammer came down; the sharp end of the tooth was guided by the top of the hammer. So with a good swing downward, the tooth and the hammer was plunged downward and nailed the Dark head. It was still squirming as Jacket shifted the weapon back into the shotgun form.

He blasted away the outer layer of skin; the read inners exposed itself as Jacket unleashed another shell. There was a small splatter of blood. Then on the third shell, Jacket blasted the heat on the head once more to make sure the head stays down.

The White head grew desperate as the charge to Jacket launching more teeth at him, which most of them missed wedging themselves into the dark head. By the time White head made it to Jacket. It was halted by the shotgun shells into the exposed mouth. So the head dropped to the floor as it came to its end. Jacket jumped off the beast panting for air.

He turned around to see three Beowolves with the crimson teeth. The fur pitch black and the growling were more than obvious to hear. Jacket got fed up with the thought and slung his hammer over his shoulder. It was then, the trio of Beowolves charged toward him. He walked forward as the first claw came down to slash him. Jacket crouched down as the barrel blasted the first Beowolf back.

The second Beowolf was on all fours to attack. Then in the moment of power, the wolf showed off its teeth and the two front legs ready to knock Jacket back. Jacket could see it prepared itself to launch itself so Jacket had the weapon go into the hammer form. Instead of swinging it, Jacket was too lazy to. So in response, he held onto the hammer end of the weapon with the piercing crowbar end was ready by the time the Beowolf approached him.

The crowbar end was shoved down the throat of the Beowolf. With the right claw it struck Jacket on his right arm leaving a large hold in the clothing as it drew blood as well. Jacket retaliated by twisting the handle so the sharp end twisted as well. The teeth clenched down to graze the hands of Jacket. He lifted the handle upward and to mouth as shown upward. Jacket placed his left foot over the inner jaw; he was pinched by the teeth on his ankle. Jacket kept lifting until the upper jaw as cracked and the mouth drew blood. The Beowolf submitted to the pain and gave up.

Jacket tugged the weapon out for it shift into the shotgun. It was then the last Beowolf pounced Jacket sinking its teeth into Jacket's right shoulder. It was life being stabbed, but Jacket expected this kind of pain and activated the last of his semblance. It shocked the Beowolf and it was twitching from the defense. Jacket shoved the Beowolf aside. He got to his feet and swung it horizontally for it smash the face of the Beowolf in.

The hammer dripped Grimm blood on both ends as the Jacket stood tall again obviously tired from the test. He panted inaudible breaths. He looked out into the darkness and outstretched his arms. His hands formed palms and gestured for more Grimm to come his way. In the last moment, Jacket's expression was the same as he started. Calm but ready for more.

**The song should end now.**

"And so ends the test." The Headmistress commented as the lights returned to brighten the room. Jacket looked out to see Jaune and Wolfe standing there clapping for him in the fight. He lowered his head for a bow. On the other ends of the arena several students with free time watched the fight.

Professor Port was brushing his moustache in deep thought. Doctor Oobleck stood there and slammed another drink of his coffee. The Headmaster was leaning forward since he observed every movement Jacket made. He didn't say a word but came to a conclusion.

He stood up from the seat. Jacket caught on as he walked toward the ledge Ozpin stood over. He was ready for the final call. Jaune and Wolfe fumbled about as they got closer to hear what Ozpin would say. They were all to hearing distance of Ozpin.

He turned to Port and Oobleck. Port shook his head while Oobleck nodded. Glynda Goodwitch shrugged as Ozpin turned to her. She shrugged her shoulders. All the while, Jacket remained concentrated on Ozpin.

"Mr. Alburn, you've displayed a great of amount of willpower in the test. Granted that weapon design calls for you to become more tactical in your ability to fight. It isn't very useful in this situation, but I digress. You have the courage, and the basic instinct to fight. You have the energy and skills needed to be a huntsman. You must practice to refine yourself on your ability; you're obviously talented to fight humans, but not so much against Grimm. Work on that, and you'll be alright. So congratulations, welcome to Beacon Academy." Ozpin smiled at the end.

Jacket didn't show an immediate reaction as a small smile appeared on his face. Jaune and Wolfe jumped for joy as they jumped down to the arena to congratulate Jacket.

"Fuck yeah!" Wolfe high fived Jacket. Jaune came around and patted Jacket on the back.

"Would you please Glynda?" Ozpin stated.

She acknowledged the reaction and approached Jacket. It was a school property scroll but on the display was a series of letters and a schedule. A series of classes for Jacket to attend as a freshman to Beacon. On it was a locker number, a code to the lock, and an order to get uniforms from the school's quartermaster.

"You will have to catch up on what all the students have gone over so far in the classes. The instructors will not slow down their schedules for you. So I recommend preparing yourself for the upcoming years. We'll discuss the smaller matters later on. I believe you and your friends have a celebration in order." Ozpin took a sip from his coffee mug and turned around.

Oobleck and Port both knew that this test was over and decided to return to their own work as they turned around to leave the arena. The Headmistress walked up to the group.

"In case you were wondering, Headmaster Ozpin was going to let you in anyway; he spent that whole time back at the office preparing your schedule." Glynda winked. "Don't let this opportunity slip away, got it?"

Jacket stood tall and his back was straight. He nodded to her conditions. She smiled at his response and turned around to exit the arena. When all the adults were gone, Jacket jumped for joy as he realized he was still bleeding from the minor cuts.

"Oh crap… we forgot about that." Jaune stopped in his excited tracks.

"Come on, the infirmary is this way." Wolfe walked ahead of the group. Jacket wiped the last of the Grimm blood of his weapon as it faded from metal. (The Grimm has a habit of their bodies fading into nothingness. So they are literally self-cleaning.)

Wolfe looked along the bleachers to see several of the students watching leave the arena as well. Among them was Daniel Steele. He looked impressed as he walked out of the arena. Jaune noticed another person in the audience as well. Her gaze felt like his skin was burning. Cinder did a light scoff as she stood up to leave. Jaune grunted in her general direction.

Wolfe had Jacket's weapon placed back into the bag as the three of them entered the hallway. It was vacant of students and people.

"So you okay Jacket?"

He shook his head as he felt kind of tired. Sure he could run on absorbed energy, but as a person, Jacket still needs to get natural sleep. The reason being for natural maintenance and repair for the body. So after an amount of time, he would need to rest back at Wolfe's house.

"Okay, so how the hell is this going to work when we get test as partners for the combat testing?" Wolfe asked as he opened the door for Jacket to enter.

"We'll figure it out as we go along." Jacket sat down as the nurse started to apply the standard disinfectant and bandages. It wasn't anything really serious as the cuts would take a couple of days from the dust medicine. After twenty minutes of treatment, Jacket was ready to go.

"I don't know about you guys, but I was thinking about getting some breakfast, what about you?" Jaune suggested. Wolfe and Jacket looked at each other.

"Sure, it's not like we got anywhere else to go."

The three of them walked to the main lunch building and Jacket was the one to open the door. Inside there was Pyrrha, Blake, and Weiss all together at their usual table. The three got their plates for the morning and walked to another table.

Jaune didn't think about having to blend his school team with the Payday crew. Doing so could be risky. He took a scoop of his cereal and took a bite. Jacket got a stack of waffles and syrup. Wolfe got a nice blueberry bagel with cream cheese. All of them started to eat in silence until they were approached by Pyrrha and Blake.

"Morning Pyrrha, Blake." Jaune nodded.

"Morning." Pyrrha walked around Jaune and sat beside him. Blake sat beside Pyrrha. The two obviously had trust issues with Wolfe and Jacket.

"So, the competition is getting closer, did your weapon mods come in yet?" Jaune asked before he took another scoop from his cereal. The air of the room was still and all the students inside kept to themselves. Team CRDL wasn't in sight, so that was a pleasant change.

"No, the post office told me the mods won't arrive until next week." Pyrrha turned to the others. "So you're Jaune's friends as well?"

"Yeah, the name is Tomas Wolfe and this here is Jack Alburn." Wolfe gestured and looked back at them.

"So that's the new student you helped yesterday Jaune?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, here's Jacky." Jaune said as a response. The kind of response that isn't much for carrying conversation but proves how out of touch the speaker was. Jaune fit that bill perfectly. Jacket obviously didn't like that name.

"Right." Pyrrha turned to Wolfe. "Can I ask how you know Jaune?"

"Oh right." Wolfe put his bagel down. "Well Jaune here helped me out on an assignment back at the library, and he's been a bro ever since."

"Was that when you stayed late at the library all those weeks ago?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, you said you were busy so I stuck around anyway." Jaune didn't see the harm in giving away parts of the truth. He could play his guilt off and still seem sincere. Wolfe caught on to this and the two have spoken in the past of what to do in case there's danger. Just keep the conversation fresh and to the point of not exposing Jaune's cover. Wolfe also explained this to Jacket, it's not like he's going to say anything.

"Oh well that makes sense. Ruby was wondering where you were. She wanted your opinion on some sort of team exercise she wants the rest of our team to try out." Blake said before she opened a book to read. Like before, Blake is avoiding her room was because of the damn dog, Zwei. Weiss told them she was heading back to play with the dog.

"I've heard about you. You're that hotshot from Mistral, aren't you?" Wolfe pointed at Pyrrha. "Weren't you on that cereal box?"

From there, the Jacket and Wolfe got to see a glimpse of the other friends Jaune had. Wolfe was pleasantly surprised on the amount of friendliness the 'Goddess of Victory' had toward them. With a waving arms and making an invisible noose with his hands and making a hangman gesture, Jaune made it clear that mentioning her title was a bad idea. Wolfe quickly dropped the topic. Blake noticed this and laughed lightly as Pyrrha turned around.

"What are you doing?"

"… Nothing…" Jaune had his hands behind his back. It was that how he embarrassed to be caught acting like a weirdo in other people's eyes. He didn't notice several of the other teams laughing at him.

_Damn_. Jaune shook his head as he sat down. Jaune looked around to see team CFVY (Pronounced 'Coffve,' I believe the small emphasis of the "V" sound.) The team of upperclassmen by one year. The leader in some sort of fashion commando getup with her aviator sunglasses and purse. Fox, the dark skinned mute with orange hair and clothing. Velvet, the Faunus member whose secretly a sniper. Finally Yatsuhashi, the tall stoic member with a blade as tall as he is. Which he was already six feet tall. If it the sword was any larger, it should be called a Buster Sword.

Velvet spotted Jaune and Wolfe; she looked at them with a calm expression and nodded. Jaune nodded back. Pyrrha caught on and wrapped her arm around Jaune's neck. Blake was too into her book to care, it was her Ninjas of Love with a fake cover over it.

"What was that about?" Pyrrha smiled as Jaune clasped for air.

(Cough) "She's a friend." (Cough) Pyrrha continued to make Jaune suffer for another ten seconds.

"Alright, I'll believe you… for now." Pyrrha released her death grip from Jaune.

(Cough) "I should be so lucky." Jaune joked as he rubbed his neck. While he did so, he felt his right pocket vibrate. Which was odd, because no one usually takes to the time to call Jaune, he took it out and looked at the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"This is Dale's repair service. I got a message for you."

"Hold on." Jaune placed his hand over his phone. "Hey people. I gotta take this, I'll be right back." All of them didn't see a reason why Jaune told them about his call. Jaune walked back toward the courtyard.

"What's going on Bain did you figure things out about Jacket?"

"Nothing yet. I'm good but I'm not that good. I just started." Bain snapped back.

"Okay fine. So what's going on?"

"I know this may be weird for you, but among the underground of communication network. A guy is looking for you. Don't worry; this guy isn't a cop or anything, rather the opposite in fact." Bain clarified.

"What do you mean?" Jaune looked around to see no one as he was standing in the middle of a patch of grass.

"He goes by the name of Hector. He's in a lieutenant of the Morales Dust Cartel."

"What about him?" Jaune would say more, but Bain is still an outside party, too much said could mean trouble.

"He's seeking out the members of the Payday Gang to-"

"Kill us?"

"I was getting to that. Hector wants to find the Payday Gang, because he wants to HIRE you and your crew."

"Wait what?"

"I said Hire. How do you still not understand this?" Bain said as he began to get impatient.

"I heard you, but I'm more surprised on the whole thing." Jaune responded.

"It's not to be expected. The Commissar was a growing thorn into Hector's side, so with that hit you did along with the others; I guess you've impressed him enough. Now he wants to talk to you and your crew. Don't be a dick alright? Hector still believes there is still 'honor among thieves.' I recommend you just hear him out, alright?"

"Fine. Text me his number." Jaune responded.

"Already did, and as a professional curiosity, you better call him within the next two hours as I could help encrypt your phone call with him to have a safe conversation." Bain stated.

_This is going by a little too conveniently._

Jaune was tempted to hang up. "What's your angle on this?"

"No angle… well, Hector promised to pay a finder's fee for the one that transfers the message to him. Just be sure to mention me when you call him okay?" Bain was eager to get easy pocket change since he had a leg up over all the other hackers.

"Fine, thanks Bain." Jaune looked out into the courtyard to see Cinder still under the tree with a comic book in hand, then a _very_ interesting thought came to mind.

"Talk to you later." Bain was ready to hang up.

"Hey Bain, I got another contract for you do research as well."

"Sure, what is it?"

"I want you to do research on one Cinder Fall." Jaune stated as he turned around.

"Sure, you know the fees." Bain typed a reminder message on his computer. "I'll let you when I got the information. Bye." The droning tone of the call dragged on as Jaune lowered his scroll. He looked at the text message as Jaune walked off into along the wall and kept his eye out for people. _Nah, I'll call Hector later_.

Jaune returned to the Cafeteria to see Wolfe and Jacket by themselves.

"Where did the Pyrrha and Blake go?" Jaune asked as he sat down.

"Pyrrha wanted to do some sort of special training and Blake said she wanted to go find a tree." Wolfe took the last bite of his bagel.

"That's racist." Jaune knew it was a cop out response to get Wolfe to stumble over his words.

"Screw off, that was she literally told us." Wolfe rolled his eyes. Jacket nodded to what Wolfe talked about. Wolfe and Jaune helped Jacket get acquainted on where his classrooms were located. It took them only an hour and the Jacket was pretty tired from earlier so the three of them decided to return to Wolfe's house. There wasn't anything exciting going on as the three of them entered the house. Jacket walked up stairs and went to sleep rather fast. Wolfe walked his workshop to work on the equipment. Jaune sat in the living room and dialed the number Bain sent him.

"Hello?" A grizzled accented voice asked as the phone only rang for two chimes.

"Hello, this is Crescent of the Payday Gang and I hear you've been looking for us."

**I've noticed that I haven't had any of the characters fight Grimm yet. So I think this is a good place as any. Also, we get to see the original Payday members as students; I thought a cameo was in order. Before people flip out, please don't get your hopes up with them, please? Also, Jacket is going to be mute in while at Beacon but use his tape recorder when he's on heists. Also, for those curious about his weapon to use in school is the Ding Dong Breaching Tool from the Payday 2 Weapons pack. I figured since Jacket is a 'Jack of all traits' when it comes to melee and ranged weapons. I figured he could use a utility weapon. I chose the Mossberg shotgun, because that is the weapon sprite used in Hotline Miami and I figure to blend the two. The next job is going to have Preplanning as well. Also Hector has made the scene, does that mean more jobs? … Hell yeah! Like always tell me what you think in a review and have an excellent day.**

**Drow79: **Thanks for noticing the contrast. I wanted them to have a unique relationship whenever they talked to each other.

**Gamerandartist35:** Thank you for acknowledging the quote. I thought it was something to be frowned upon in this story as I may get too serious at times. Thank you for the kind words.

**Iandude:** I haven't really cemented my thoughts on the tournament because Season 3 of RWBY hasn't been released yet. Thank you for noticing the contrast between Jaune and Cinder. Have an wonderful day.

**Lukefang:** Thanks for catching that potential plot hole. Yeah, Jacket won't talk at Beacon, but he'll use his tape recorder when on a heist.

**Guest:** Thank you liking it so far. Sorry, I forgot to mention the votes were closed, I'll be sure to edit that later.

**Operator Blake 'Roxasrock:** Who knows, I'll definitely expand upon that later on . Thank you so much for reading.


	17. Chapter 17, Aftermath

**This chapter is going to be shorter than the recent ones, but you'll see why at the end. Also, College classes are over, Woo HOO! So I will have more time to write. Also, don't think this is over; I have a lot more planned out for this story. I honestly have no idea how long this will be and appreciate it for those willing to tag along.**

There was a pungent smell of burnt herbs in the air as two people in suits walked into the fields to see the newfound damage.

"So what do you think what happened?" The male suited man asked as he looked to his partner. He was in his late twenties, his hair was of a dark caramel brunette and the same went for his eyes. His chin was covered in a light beard that didn't overburden his chin. It was kept rather short but it was still a beard. His forehead was clear to show a possible receding hairline, but it won't affect him anytime soon. His most defining feature was his purple eyes.

"Don't really know, but according to the team that arrived first, there's more out into the shore." The woman suit responded.

The two walked along a dirt path. The man raised his left foot slightly higher so avoid tripping over a destroyed droid's torso. It was cleaved in half, and as the first responders continued to check the site. Along the dirt were the shell casings to a variety of weapons. There was a bundle of droids with shields on the ground and a crater five feet away from the bodies.

"What happened?" The woman asked.

"Well, according to the initial survivors, there was a wave of gun fire. A lot of the guards were swiftly taken care of by the gun fire. The private army that was stationed here responded by their droids and tried to dispatch their attackers." The man looked out into a nearby wall to see a Bulldozer droid sitting down with bullet holes all over the helmet.

"So these guys who attacked must have packed some serious firepower." The woman thought out loud. She doesn't care much for it, because she and her partner were used for the jobs the higher agents don't care for.

"Well, what happened was the opposite." The man pointed out. A specific droid design codenamed the '_Beetle_,' was in the dirt with half of its right arm missing. The droid was specifically designed to outclass the Bulldozer design in the armor and weaponry. The six foot mini-gun was still firmly in the left grip of the destroyed frame. Not to mention expensive. The Beetle is easily worth three Skulldozers.

The woman turned to the man. She was in her mid-twenties, with strawberry blonde hair. It was all tied back in a confident ponytail. Her forehead was wide but her long bangs were combed to the side to complement her face. Her iris eyes looked at her coworker. Her eyebrows were shaped in a nice curved angle. It wasn't over-plucked like other women, she just kept it maintained. Her nose was curved in the end, but it didn't mess with her face, in fact, her nose complemented her appearance.

"What do you mean, Violet?" The woman asked her coworker.

"Yeah, you see, all the human targets involved were all shot by electric dust rounds and they were kept unconscious for the duration of the attack." Violet pointed out. He raised his right foot higher so he wouldn't trip over a severed droid torso. It was a squad of black Taser droids. The armor was the same, but it just painted black compared to the police Tasers.

"What was the overall damage?"

"About 75 hundred thousand lien in damage of what was growing here, it was almost ready for harvest as well. So this was planned out to the letter." Violet said as he walked to a small raided shack. Inside, it was shown to have been ransacked by the attack.

"So there weren't any human causality, but there was a skilled group here, because I don't see a body or samples of the persons involved." The woman commented as her coworker walked in front of her.

"That's the bonus thing; there is no trace of anyone that has attacked. From that kind of planning, that means the attackers must have been equipped with gloves to conceal their identities."

The two walked to a small summit that had a small height over the surrounding area. The hill was decent enough to have a pair of guard seats to watch the area. What Violet and the woman saw, was a 30 acers worth of marijuana and cocaine plants singed with embers of fire. A majority of it was still smoking.

"That's not the best part." Violet said as he turned to his left to look out into the water. The fields are close to a river that was 80 kilometers away from the ocean. But along the shore, was a rather large lake that had a private cruise liner ship anchored there.

"The attack didn't just end here. Out into the water, there were two boats, but as you can see, there is only one." Violet smiled as his coworker showed signs of being impressed. In every direction, there was a droid corpse there that failed its mission.

"There was several who got a good look at the attackers. All of them were in masks; one even wore a chicken mask. All talked in codenames with custom suits to boot."

"You mean, the Payday Gang?" The woman clarified for herself.

"Yep, upper management doesn't care about this enough so the case was passed off to us to do the investigation." Violet reached into his pocket to take out his scroll. "Well, that was our CO told me, but I know that lead investigators are making their way here, right now for to take over from us."

"You already know how I feel about them." The woman said as she turned around.

"That I do, that is why I had you recommended to do this job. We have two hours before the upper level feds show up. I already know that's more than enough time for you to gather what you can, Sam." Violet smiled.

"You know me too well Vi." Sam smiled as she grew excited to do her work for once.

**Well gather around you wonderful readers. Here we obviously have the aftermath of what happened here. I was going to do another chapter explaining what the characters were planning, but I thought that would be boring. So I decided to do this route instead. As some of you could tell. I'm going to start introducing NEW enemy types into the story the characters will face. The 'Beetle' is just the start. So the reason this chapter is so damn short is because, this is the next Preplanning I'm going to do. The first one went better than I expected. The rules are the same as before. ONE vote per option and voice your thoughts. Also, this is my own Original job for the characters to do.**

**Edit: The Voting for the options has been closed. The next chapter is of the Heist.**

**So let me explain the minor details. There will be FIRE involved with the heist. As in using fire to burn stuff. BUT this means that they face a small army, so the Payday Gang has to plan this out very carefully. I look forward on how you feel toward this.**

**Of course one of the characters will be armed with a Flame thrower. I was going to make this an option, but it was too awesome to vote for. So it gets in regardless.**

**Option 1: Molotov Cocktails. **The team will need to operate quickly to burn the marijuana and cocaine fields quickly, so each member will carry several bottles to toss into the fields. The Molotov could be used in something other than burning the fields.

**Option 2: Sentry Guns.** Wolfe will prepare a series of machine guns to fit into briefcases. These are specially designed to fired short bursts at their enemies. Everyone in the crew will carry one, and when they raid the ship. They will be resupplied. These Sentries will also behave like self-destructing bombs when it runs out of ammo.

**Option 3: Grenade Launcher.** Wolfe will be equipped with a Grenade Launcher attachment to go with his G36 Carbine and provide cover fire while the rest of the crew burns the product.

**There will be no Cinder Fall for the heist, because that would make this too easy, and I like having to make this challenging for the Payday Gang. I'm a jerk huh? Lol. Response corner time.**

**Lukefang: **Sorry I didn't understand your review. But I'm glad I clarified with the PMs. Fox is unique and I'm well aware he's blind. Thanks for pointing it out, it helps.

**RyderRosas: **I can see what you mean, and it was kind of a difficult habit to break in Jacket's communication to the characters. I wanted him to be understandable. I'll get better for him, most definitely. Also, Jacket could have a astronomy voice tape for him to have the word 'Crescent.' Thanks for voicing your thoughts and have an excellent day.

**Supernoob257: **I have a ton planned for the story, so don't worry. I'm a rather big fan of John Wick as well. Gun fu was awesome in the movie. So pumped to know the creators want to make a franchise out of the character. Have a most excellent day.

**This Heist will be hot and ready this Sunday. So cast your votes.**

**I hope you're excited for the... "Tropical Heist."**


	18. Chapter 18, The Tropical Heist

**Thanks for all of those who voted. The option that got the most votes was option one. Now given with the ammunition to write, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. The songs for this one will be "**Mech Battle Theme 3**" from the Mech Assault 1 soundtrack and "**Die**" from RWBY Volume 2 soundtrack. Now let us commence the Tropical Heist. (Imagine a picture of the Payday Gang with tiny drinks with umbrellas.)**

**First track:** watch?v=3sef61Logp4

**Second track: ** watch?v=myHeamqtvqQ

"Well then, this was much faster than expected." The gruff voice responded to Jaune on the phone. There wasn't much for Jaune to go off of about Hector beside what Bain informed him about.

"Indeed, now please speak your business." Jaune looked to his right to see Wolfe sitting down in a chair. Before the call, Jaune had a talk with Wolfe and Jacket. The two are as curious to know what Hector wanted from them as well.

"I like you already. So with the bullshit aside, I want to hire you and your crew. The job is that I'm a lieutenant for the Sinaloan Cartel. My current rival, the Mendoza Cartel wants to flood the market with a wave of drugs. This cannot happen, the region will collapse leaving my employment in a fragile state. I need you to burn the fields of their product and steal a vessel that is holding what has already been harvested. The supply and demand must be kept in a balance. So can you carry out the contract?" Hector spoke with a clear voice and Jaune could feel the contained rage this man has.

"You're really considerate with the information." Jaune said by reflex. Wolfe made a surprised expression was about ready to punch Jaune.

"But of course. I'm asking you to do this because you already eliminated my competition of the Commissar. I'll be sure to throw in a bonus for that as well. Also, you didn't answer my question. That does not leave me with much confidence." Hector's finger was eager to press 'end' on his scroll.

_Do this and get paid. This is a chance to stop a cartel of bringing in more product to the people. But where does that leave me? To be some lapdog to another master, Cinder already has that title. CRAP what the hell do I do?_ Jaune looked back at Wolfe.

_To prevent something dangerous from entering the city, like Hector said, too much could spell chaos. Keep one cartel in charge while the other will want payback. Go for the lessor evil or complete neutrality? But nothing ever gets done by those who avoid the problem. How do the guys think about this?_

Wolfe looked at Jacket and he had his arms crossed. It was brief, but the two looked at Jaune and nodded at him.

_Fuck it_. "We'll do it. Can you please provide further details so we can get the job done?" Jaune said looked away from the crew.

"Excellent, a weapons dealer that operates in Vale has a package will give you all the information you need. I'll be informed when you come to claim it. You know of me, and I know of you. Let's keep this business transaction on a need to know basis. The dealer's name is Gage." Hector sounded like he was going to hang up.

"I know Gage and hold on."

"Yes?"

"The one who found us was Bain. Be sure to pay him the finder's fee."

"Gladly, please hurry, this is a pressing matter that needs to taken care of." Hector said before he hung up on the call. Jaune closed his scroll and looked to the crew.

"So are we going to start working for the bad side of the law now?" Wolfe said that to be a smartass and didn't mean to make it sound worse that it needed to be. Jacket kept his calm posture the same even when the call ended.

"For now, like I told you, I need to make my own network. This is just start. If it gets to the point of being too dangerous, we'll lay low for a while." Jaune replied. _I'll have you guys lay low while I still do my work for Cinder to take the heat off you._

Jacket finally separated his arms. "VvveerrT, What is vvett plan?" Jacket's finally showed his right hand which had his tape recorder.

"We can't do that yet. I need to see Gage because that's where Hector has the info stashed for us. I'll go there to claim it before Hector gets restless." Jaune stood up.

"You guys go on ahead. There's something I want to work on before we do the job." Wolfe said before he walked back into the workshop.

"Fine by me, Jacket, do you want to meet Gage?" Jaune asked that as he got to his feet.

"VRT, Yes please." Jacket nodded as he walked to the kitchen to get his fingerless gloves. Jacket couldn't wear his boxing tape, so he bought himself a pair of gloves to be prepared for a short fight if need be.

"Great." Jaune said as he closed the door and walked along the sidewalk with Jacket. They walked and took a series of bus stops and a short train ride. To downtown Vale, he was a large vacant factory where the city left abandoned for decades. The area was unusable for a while until a unknown figure paid for the property. This old factory belonged to Gage.

Jaune explained to Jacket who Gage was during the parts of the walk when there wasn't anyone around to eavesdrop. Well, the only things Jaune learned from observation. Gage was an middle aged Mistral Veteran. His weaponry would imply a military background because Hunters worry more of custom equipment over the number of weaponry.

Jaune remembered hearing the phrase. "Be prepared for the better fighter." From the visit when Wolfe came here with Jaune to get his equipment. Gage didn't say that in those exact words, but it was close enough to resemble the Mistral military's motto. "Work for your comrade, Serve the public trust, and Steel yourself for the unconquerable darkness." So being prepared for the better fighter is what the COs like to beat into the mentality of the recruits.

Jaune walked ahead of Jacket, another thing about Gage is that he doesn't like meeting new people unless informed. _I should have remembered that_. Jaune and Jacket finished walking through a narrow hallway. The reason for that is Gage has a dozen fixed mounted LMGs in place to light up the narrow corridors. Jaune judged from the blackened holes on the walls and floors, Gage's defenses has work in the past.

They turned to their right to see a man sitting down in a wheelchair as he was taking a gun apart with the pieces scattered about on the table. It looked like he was customizing a P90 submachine gun. He looked up to see his customers.

He was a Caucasian man. He had orangeish short hair and it was combed upward so it veered off to his right. It looked longer but it was still kept short. His eyes were of a light hazel. Gage's attire was the olive green coat with his blue pants and black t-shirt. In the left shoulder pocket was a pack of cigarettes.

The moment he looked at Jaune and Jacket. He lowered the piece of the weapon and had his hands reach for the handle of his wheelchair. His left hand pushed forward as the right pushed the other handle backward. He turned to Jaune.

"Well hello there, I recall you from before. How's that H&amp;K G36 holding up?" Gage smiled as he leaned forward from his chair.

"Just fine, the owner of it hasn't complained about at all." _Actually, Wolfe wouldn't shut up about having to use a sight that was off by one millimeter until he modified it._ "I came here because Hector told me you were acting as a proxy."

"So you're the contact. You must be making real headway for that guy to request you." Gage cocked his head and made a light grin. It was obvious he was thinging of something that was both a compliment and an insult.

"I wouldn't know. Do you know much about him?" Jaune laid the bait.

Gage took out a cigarette and flicked his limited edition Charmander Pokémon lighter. Yes Gage liked the anime about fake animals in control of the elements. Jaune in fact respected Gage about that. "No I don't." Gage flicked his lighter for an ember for his cig. "Do you recall the age old saying, 'there's Honor among thieves?'" Gage took a puff. "You better learn it quick." Gage took the bait and ripped off the line as he blew out a small ball of smoke.

"Understood." Jaune learned the problem in asking.

"Taking the advice and not apologizing. Nice job there Champ." Gage took the cigarette out from his lips and held it in his index and middle finger of his left hand. Gage wheeled himself to another table to his left and took a rather large envelope which rested on his lap and made his way back to first table.

While Gage was doing that, Jacket looked around the room. He saw a complete armory of weapons. All of them clean, proud, and glimmering off the light. He noticed a MG42, The machine gun that was put into service since the Great War that happened a hundred years ago. Capable of firing 1200 rounds a minute, with a muzzle velocity of 2477 feet per second, the drum magazine of 250 rounds complete with a belt. That thing was a monster during the war and was held in great and terrified regard. Jacket realized how did he even know that?

He looked to his right. He saw a VHS, the Višenamjeska Hrvatska Strojnica. The weapon designed by the Crotan nomadic tribe. Can fire 850 rounds per minute, muzzle velocity of 3120 feet per second, and has a 30 round magazine cartridges. Jacket blinked as he looked back to Gage who rolled up to the table.

"Here you are. I keep telling Hector I'm not a post office, so remind him that I said that." Gage had a semi-serious frown.

"Got and thank you Gage. This is what we needed." Jaune nodded.

"Hold on there cowboy." Gage said before Jaune and Jacket could turn around.

"Yeah?"

"Hector paid this off for you and said to pass it on to you." Gage rolled to his right and took hold of a rather large weapon and rolled it back to table. He placed it on the table and it was full view of the two.

"This my friends is the BT G1."

"What do the acronyms stand for?"

"The Blow Torch Gage 1." Gage smiled as he looked at Jaune. "I know Hector wanted some sort of flame thrower for you guys. I understand that. But Hector doesn't know that flame throwers operate on fuel, not gas. The fire at the end is what ignites the when the fuel is being squirted out to your enemies. Two problems with that, fuel is heavy as fuck, and fuel canisters don't put out for that long." Gage took hold of the weapon and passed it on to Jaune.

"I dealt with that issue. The answer is propane."

"Please elaborate." Jaune asked as he passed the weapon to Jacket. Jacket started to look at the BT from every angle.

"Fuel canisters are expensive and leave a noticeable trail. So the BT G1, it operates on propane, cheaper and less noticeable on purchase. The main drawback is that I named it a Blow Torch for a reason, it has very short range. About 3 meters upon firing it. So with that I've prepared a dozen canisters ready to work with that bad boy."

"Thanks."

"On purchase." Gage added at the end.

"Done." Jaune said knowing full well how much he's going to need Gage's weapon. He took an envelope of lien from his back pocket. It was loaded with 8,000 lien.

Jacket tilted his head. "EeerVRT, Why VRT separate?"

"The same reason why hot dogs are sold in packages of 10 and the buns in packages of 8." Gage leaned back. "That is for you to figure out."

Jacket thought of Gage had a dark sense humor toward business but Jaune made it clear before coming here to NOT ruin the relationship with the best gun smuggler in Vale. For the rest of the visit, Jaune gathered up other necessities that the crew would need for the heist. Mainly another way of burning the fields.

I got the research. I'll take care of the incendiaries- J.

Great- W.

Gage was kind enough to supply a duffle back of the canisters and the BT G1. Jacket and Jaune walked out of the place and made their way to Wolfe's house. They didn't stop for nothing because of the severity of the package they needed for the job. It wasn't long before they entered through the front door.

"Wolfe, we're back." Jaune said as he lowered the duffle bag to the floor. Jacket, he walked to the kitchen to eat something. There was no answer to his question as Jaune opened the door to the workshop. There he saw Wolfe working diligently on something. It looked like a small briefcase that had a SMG inside that looked to have some kind of belt firing mechanism. Wolfe looked at Jaune.

"Cool." He looked back at his project."

"What chu' doing?" Jaune got a good look at his project.

"This is just my side project. I hoped that I would have this done by now, but it's still in the prototype stage. When it's done, we'll have some extra guns on the battlefield. I promise you that." Wolfe smiled as he leaned forward in his chair.

"Cool." Jaune said by reflex. From there, Jaune explained the rest of the job, conditions, and the BT G1. When Wolfe was all caught up, the three of them gathered around in the kitchen and discussed the plan to carry out the job. They talked and talked, well in Jacket's case, pressed some buttons. By the conclusion of it, the only way to get to the job site would be by airship and that would mean the prolonged fligjt package deal from Bile. Jaune contacted Bile and scheduled a flight plan.

"Okay, so we have a majority of the details sorted out, so what about personal? Because, I don't mind reminding us of how much we're all badasses but, we need someone else to help us on the job." Wolfe leaned away from the table, the desk was all scattered with paperwork and pictures. "Because of all the gear we have to carry and size of the area of operation."

"It's fine, I'll just hire Neo again."

"VvvERrT, is plan vrt good, no?"

The last of the planning concluded and it was a good four hours of time Jaune spent visiting Wolfe's house. He said his goodbyes and returned to Beacon.

Jaune walked through the courtyard as the sun was setting on for the Saturday night. It was orange and the heat began to make Jaune's back sweat. He walked along the sidewalk of the main courtyard.

"Hmm." Cinder thought out loud as she finished another issue of a series. She reached into the bag get the next issue of the same comic book series. _I wonder what would happen to the duel between the Freelancer and the Puma._ Cinder thought as she carefully took out the comic and closed the plastic wrap carefully.

"Having fun?" Jaune said before he walked into close proximity of Cinder.

"Not bad actually." Cinder said before she opened up the next issue. "So why these things so short and the supposed heroes are to have complex perceptions and abilities?"

"I honestly have to idea." Jaune said before he sat down on the grass. From the angle of the sun, it would have had the tree have an elongated shadow but a building was in the way to provide much needed shade. Not that the heat would bother Cinder anyway.

"So this woman is on the hunt for her mother? The comics never gave enough of the reason why she's on this quest though, not since the hint ten issues ago." Cinder pointed out as she read the credits of the new issue she was reading.

"Well that's the thing; you won't know the full story until you collect all the fragments. Every issue provides a small window to see the bigger picture. The best way to think about is thinking that every issue is a chapter to an overall book." Jaune had always that thought in his head but never had the chance to speak it.

"I see, it seems that all persons involved must be in peak physical form as well." Cinder said after reading the first two pages.

"Yeah, I don't really know the reason for that. Some it has the idea of making it seem like the only way you can succeed is by pushing yourself hard enough. Personally, I like the characters and heroes that can't do everything." Jaune thought of his favorite comic book characters.

"Because you look for a reason to relate to them?" Cinder asked as she really looked into the picture of the teal colored armored woman punch an alien.

"Huh?" Jaune looked at Cinder.

"You like those characters because they can't do everything and you feel the same way about yourself." Cinder lowered the comic book from her vision and turned to Jaune.

"I already know I can't do everything. The fun part is seeing the characters try to do what they can or can't do. That struggle to be part be the solution to that problem. That kind of stuff."

"I don't quite follow. It seems like you read it to see how the characters involved will fail." Cinder looked around. A majority of the students outside all wondered back into the buildings during the course of the day. Dinner in the cafeteria was about to start soon.

"It's all subjective, until the characters say otherwise." Jaune shrugged.

Cinder looked back at the comic book. From basic observation, Jaune saw all the comic book covers all scattered about on the grass. All of them in their protective spines and wraps. He didn't think about Cinder mistreating the comics during her time reading them.

"Has anyone bugged you today?"

"No one actually. Some stared but they didn't do anything worth my attention." Cinder responded. She was in the casual clothing as she wore a long sleeve crimson shirt with a

"Oh well that's cool." Jaune said as he looked around.

"Making conversation again?"

"Yeah, I don't have a reason to head back to the dorm anytime soon. I just came by to check on you since you're on the way." Jaune answered honestly.

"There is more to it."

"You caught me. The thing is that, I also would like to know where Neo is. I want to hire her for the next job I'm undertaking." He said as he took one of his comics and opened it up to read.

"A job?" Cinder echoed.

"Yeah. I have a life too you know."

"Well, I partial surprised and the answer to your question is no. Neo isn't at Beacon at the moment, or Vale for that matter. I sent her away on assignment." Cinder responded.

"Okay, can you tell me where Emerald and Mercury are, please?"

"Emerald went away to do something personal, and Mercury tagged along with her, they won't be back for several days… They have lives too you know."

Jaune felt like face palming himself. From her response, Jaune remembered how much of a jerk he could be. Sure they work with Cinder, but they aren't slaves to her complete and total will. _What do I do now?_ Jaune blinked.

"I don't need to know the details your life inquires, so if you could, I'd like to continue reading." Cinder brushed off Jaune's request. He shook his head, before he got to his feet he had a comic in his hand.

_No way I'm asking her._ Jaune thought as he moved his arm to her view.

"This is the issue explaining why the heroine is looking for her mother. It's from twelve years ago, so the art is different and if you can get past that, then you'll like what you're reading." Jaune said as Cinder took hold of it. From the looks of it, she only finished reading the a quarter of the comic books in the bag. It weighed a ton for a reason.

"Any idea when the next job will happen?" Jaune asked before he left Cinder alone.

"Just know it will be soon when Emerald and rest come back. Now goodbye." Cinder said as she opened the comic that Jaune gave to her. She was interested to know why the heroine really wanted to kill her mother.

Jaune walked to the end of the sidewalk until he reached the main entrance of the dormitory. He opened his scroll and typed a message to Wolfe and Jacket.

There has been an issue with having Neo come help us. She's not in Vale. Ideas? –J

Jaune didn't receive an answer right away. It was okay though, Jaune didn't want to think about the job for the rest of the night. He returned to his dorm and mingled with his teammates for the rest of the night. Nora pulled a prank on Pyrrha and paid the price by being pinned to the wall by the shirt by Pyrrha's spear. They had dinner at the cafeteria since Weiss took her team to have a fancy dinner in the city. When JNPR was done, they all did their own thing until they all went to sleep.

The next day

Jaune opened his eyes. He was awake an hour earlier before Pyrrha would wake up to do her runs. He looked at his digital clock for it to be 4:56 in the morning. He rolled to his left to see all Nora and Ren sleeping. Nora slept in a cuddled position, she hugged her pillow and she smiled. Jaune sat up and rubbed his eyes from the morning crust. There is a need to move quickly, today is the only day to move quickly or take a day off from class, and living at the school and missing a day, it would be rather hard to lie through that.

Jaune gathered his belongings and unzipped his onesie. Underneath was several bits of basic clothing. His gear was already with Wolfe and he would bring it to the rendezvous. Jaune yawned as he opened the door. Jaune already made up some story about going to hang out with Wolfe again that day. Ren and Nora didn't care and Pyrrha was going to spend the day training.

_Just keep it on the down low_. Jaune closed the door. He walked outside to see a nice private airship sitting on the edge of the airfield. Beacon gets airships as early as 4am because the students may need transportation at any time. The blue hue of the mixed with the darkness was a nice thing sight to see the city lights glimmer in the distance. The bay doors to the airship were wide open as he entered it. It had the red lights on so it wouldn't make the airship look suspicious.

"Morning guys." Jaune yawned again. He noticed Jacket was sitting down with his chicken mask comfortably resting in a duffle bag. None of their gear was left in the open. Bile noticed that Jaune boarded the airship and lowered his newspaper as he started the engine. Jaune walked to his right and sat down.

"VRT, Good morning. VEERT, Moon." Jacket realized he pressed play too early on his recorder. So he fumbled about and pressed the buttons again. "ErT, Crescent."

"Morning boss." Wolfe said as he walked away from the cockpit.

"Yeah." Jaune said as he looked to his right see another face.

"Hello." The new face did a light smile under the red light. Jaune looked away from the face and turned directly at Wolfe.

"Who da fuck is this?" Jaune pointed his left index finger at the new face.

"You know who it is." Wolfe chuckled as he sat down beside Jacket. The two were clearly in on it for that last second addition to the airship.

"Explain."

"Okay, we ALL agreed that we needed a four person team to pull of this job and you INFORMED us that none of our regulars WEREN'T there to help us, SO I had an idea."

"Um, do I need to be doing something right now?" The new person asked.

"Just don't talk for a moment, please?" Jaune said turning his head slightly to his right. But he didn't break off eye contact from Wolfe. It could have been that Jaune was just grouchy for the morning or that he felt betrayed from a close ally. Maybe it could have been both.

"Don't look at me, it was Jacket's idea." Wolfe exclaimed.

"VRT, _What the FUCK_, un lupo!?" Jacket raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah Wolfe, what the fuck!?" Jaune pressed on with his attack.

"Yeah." The new voice repeated.

"I thought I told you to stay quiet?" Jaune pointed out.

"Sorry."

"Aw come on. We all knew that we NEED the help. So Daniel is part of this, whether you like it or not."

Daniel Steele, the same kid that Jaune met the day before. The one that was part of the same team Wolfe was a part of. He was here with a bag of his own, and what appeared to be a shape of a face on outer layer of his bag. A mask. Wolfe invited a new person to the Payday Gang without consulting Jaune about it.

"Well he's here to help and that's all you need." Wolfe frowned as he raised both of his arms in a 'whatever' gesture. Then Wolfe blinked and remembered something. "Like you're one to talk." Wolfe reached into the bag and pulled out an item.

"What are these?" Wolfe asked knowing full well of the answer.

"Molotovs." Jaune responded.

"Thank you. When you texted me that YOU were going to 'take care of the incendiaries' I would assume the same grenades that we used before. So why do we have these things?"

"Because they could spread out the flames easier." Jaune said as a basic response, he didn't think it out as he said it.

"Uh huh. Well then Jaune. What the fuck?" Wolfe lowered the makeshift bottle back into the bag.

"VeerRRt, Miscommunication vrt main source of friction vrt between people." Jacket nodded.

"I used up all the money I had to pay for the last job and this one. I only have 6 thousand lien in my savings. I'm on a budget now." Jaune spoke with determination.

"Oh… well don't I look like a dick." Wolfe said as he sat down. Jacket looked at Jaune and made a sorry expression with his face. He didn't seem to be holding anything against Jaune because Jaune was the reason he was freed from the Commissar.

"Oh dear dust. We're only five minutes into the drive and all of you are ready to fight each other on the way." Bile groaned as he messed with his equipment.

"Sorry Bile." Jaune shouted for him to hear.

"Sorry about that. I didn't want to ask you about funding." Jaune admitted.

"I'm sorry too, I should have told you about Dan in the first place." Wolfe shrugged.

Jacket rubbed his forehead as he was worried the dispute would have lasted the entire journey. But it was resolved as soon as it started. Jaune looked to his right to Daniel.

"May I speak now?" Daniel asked.

"You may, sorry about that, I wasn't expecting to meet someone new so soon." Jaune said as he was still a bit tired from lack of sleep. He needed about one good hour to be rested for the job.

"Okay, well I'm sure Wolfe has already told you that we're already partners from the school. I was told by Wolfe that he needed help and told me everything you guys need." Before Daniel could continue. Jaune looked back at Wolfe.

"You told him everything?"

"Yeah, what was I supposed to do? He's here now so sue me." Wolfe raised another duffle bag as it was full of spare clothing to be used as a pillow for the journey.

Jacket pressed a variety of buttons on his recorder. The thing about Jacket's recorder is that it may seem old, but it was made for the modern time. Good thing he put in the 'communication is the answer' tape in the recorder. The tapes were rather small, so he also put in an astronomy tape, and his custom tape.

"Vrt, Mother vrt Father vrt please stop fighting."

When the tape finished playing. Jacket, Wolfe, Jaune and Daniel looked at each other. Without a peep, Jaune and Wolfe looked to the ground. The both of them started to burst out laughing. Daniel and Bile joined the fun, even Jacket did his inaudible giggling. Laughing the pointless arguing away, laughing the stress off, and laughing for the task at hand. This trivial bullshit was nothing to lose a head over. After a good twenty seconds, everyone on the airship calmed down took deep breaths.

Jaune and Wolfe were thinking the same thing. Both were sorry and didn't need to say it. Jaune wiped away a joy tear as he looked at Daniel.

"Phew. Aw man, I needed that. So Dan. What can you do?"

"I'm good in a fight. I can survive in a decent fight with John Wick and Chains at the same time. What I like to do is scan the situation. I have no preference to shoot or stab my targets." When Daniel said that, he took out his Hunter's weapon. It was a Sabre, it was decent and had a handle guard in case the opponent wanted to slice off a finger. When the weapon can shift, he was armed with a TMP sub machine gun, not a bad weapon but overall not great. For the true ranged combat, Daniel revealed his most prized weapon. The Designated Marksman Rifle. A mid-range assault rifle retrofitted to shoot a bigger caliber of bullet with amazing accuracy. The DMR was a beast on the battlefield, it was completely custom so Jaune could repeat all the facts about it in his head.

Daniel leaned back as he waited for what Jaune thought of him.

"So what about your semblance?"

"Mental imagining." Daniel didn't hesitate as he spoke.

"Huh?"

"When I see a specific object I want to remember, I can create a mental outline of it for me to see. The thing is, I can still see the object when I'm out of the room. The color of this working however is linked to red. When I feel hostile toward it." Daniel looked at Jacket and concentrated.

In that moment, there was a red outline around Jacket that Jaune and Wolf could see. It was strange, Jacket looked at both of his hands for the red outline to follow all of his actions.

"I can even apply the view to other people. The problem is that I can't keep the image forever and the only way my semblance works at its best is when I have a clear mind."

"Now that is an awesome semblance ability." Jaune nodded with a large smile.

"Really?"

"Fuck yeah it is. I've been telling you that since we met." Wolfe jumped in to the conversation. "I told him that his ability should be named 'Tracking.'"

"I like it." Jaune smiled as he turned to Daniel. "So I see you got mask in the bag." Jaune leaned back to stare at Daniel's bag. He caught on to the gesture and leaned forward to unzip the bag open and held the mask over his face and strapped it on before looking at Jaune.

It was shaped to be a smiling Clown mask. It had eye shadows of two pink ovals. The mouth of the mask was mellow and the lips looked like mess lip stick was applied to make the lips look larger than it needed to be. It was rather an ugly mask.

"First thing when we get back, is that we're crafting you a better mask." Jaune said. He looked at Wolfe and Jacket. When Jaune showed them how to do it, they didn't do a good job replicating his technique.

"Alrighty." Daniel nodded as he wore his mask.

"So, have you decided on a codename?" Jaune asked his final question to Daniel.

"I have… and it's Houston." Daniel spoke with clarity and pride. That was what Jaune needed to see.

"Houston, welcome to the Payday Gang." Jaune patted Daniel's back.

"Now that we're done with all the touchy feely shit. You guys want to play a game of digital monopoly? I brought a board in the bag and it's magnetic so the board wont topple over." Wolfe took out the board from his bag. "Before any of you say no, I must remind you that there is no private space on this airship for any of us to have _alone_ time. I call dibs on the car."

"Hey kids, count me in too." Bile spoke into the intercom. There was tiny black camera in the center of the ceiling. The camera gave Bile a clear view of the board game and he could use the intercom to talk on his turns. Being a pilot is an awesome job, but Bile grew a little bored of the view he had every day. So he set a spare monitor to watch the board game. Plus these Payday Gang kids weren't half bad. Not that he would admit to them.

"Fine, I'll be the Moon piece." Jaune said as the board expanded in width with a holographic view of a miniature city and the game started. All of them ready to play.

One hour and thirty minutes later

"I'll trade you Heat Street if you give me Tucker Park." Daniel said to Jacket.

"VRT, Okay." Jacket nodded to the deal.

"Now we're screwed." Bile said into the intercom.

"Don't jinx it." It was Wolfe's turn to roll the digital dice. He tossed his next hand, and like that, Wolfe landed a 5, which was Heat Street.

"Fuck you Bile, you jinxed it." Wolfe's bank transferred some of his funds to Daniel.

"You know, if this wasn't digital, I would have flipped the board a long time ago." Wolfe said to Jaune.

"Ah don't be a sore loser Wolfe." Bile shot back through the intercom. "Alright kids, you told me when we reach the 20 minute mark for the destination, it's time to gear up."

Like that Wolfe pressed a button for the game to be saved. The hologram faded and all four of them stood up. Since this place was in a humid region, so the suits would be a liability than be iconic. So the crew had to prepare for the region.

Before all of them changed, Jacket took out a stick of deodorant and passed it around for the crew to use. Sweat would have to be the least of their worries for the job. None of them complained about personal hygiene and shared it. That shit doesn't matter.

All of them had black breeze through long sleeve shirts. The pants were just the typical black pants. Wolfe wore a thin vest over his long sleeve shirt and started to strap on his knee and elbow guards, his body armor secured as well. He even had lighter greaves to wear on his thighs. So Wolfe was prepared for what to expect. His Hunter's weapon and his G36 ready to go. For the job, Wolfe would have to carry the ammunition again.

Jacket applied the cool clothing to wear for the heat. But what Jacket didn't want to change was his letterman jacket. He strapped on his flak jacket then put his regular jacket over it. Wolfe prepared the day before to bring ammunition for his piece and Jacket was rather happy with that. Jacket was set for close range, and he was the brawler of the group with his hammer. Wolfe got Jacket the same greaves and arm guards. It didn't hinder his movement so he was content about it. What was different was that Jacket was the one to be using the BT G1. There was no way Jacket could carry a dozen canisters for the job. So every member of the crew had to carry two canisters and pass them to Jacket when he needs them.

Houston he did the same process as Wolfe did but what Houston did differently was that he removed his elbow and knee guards. Houston prefers to keep mobile for the missions, being a Hunter or otherwise. His DMR was on his left shoulder with the strap over his chest along with his Sabre in the compact form on his left thigh. On his back however was a briefcase.

"Hey Wolfe, I thought you couldn't finish these in time." Jaune called out.

"I didn't, that was the only one I managed to finish." Wolfe replied as he secured his ammo bag.

Jaune wanted to be as armored before that was more a risk than a help. So Jaune lightened the load of armor to dress similarly to Wolfe. Still, Jaune's sword and shield was secured on his wrists. To balance out for the job, Jaune would have to also carry an ammo bag for the crew. There was enough clips for everyone's weapon type. Jaune's Knight's SR 10 was cleaned and aching for a fight. It took ten minutes for all of them to be fully prepared.

"Wolfe told me of the conditions be part of the crew. I got a nice amount of electro rounds." Houston told Jaune.

"Great." Jaune finished applying the last of his equipment. All four of them had three bottles of Molotovs and were ready to light up. Jaune purchased a lighter for each of them. He even got a spare in case one of the initial three would lose a lighter.

"One minute." Bile said.

"You know Wolfe, thank you for asking for my help. I wasn't sure if anyone wanted me." Houston admitted.

"Don't mention it. Not focus up Dan. We need to be ready for this." Wolfe said as he a series of small objects in his hand.

"VvverT, What items these vrt are?" Jacket asked.

"Rebreathers, so we don't get intoxicated by the fumes of the job. If that happens, we're dead." Wolfe said as they all set the small masks over their nose and mouths. It was clear and fresh air to tickle the nose. It wasn't bulky either, so the crew could still wear their real masks over these things and not have it move the mask out of the way.

"Got it." Daniel nodded in excitement.

There was nothing to be said, all of them. Each of them ready to rock and roll. They all double checked themselves and each other. Until it was time.

"Alright Crew. Masks on." Jaune said as all of them put on their faces for heisting. It was time to kick ass.

The Airship slowed down and the crew could feel the descent. Then the doors opened.

"Good luck out there fellas." Bile said as the doors opened all the way.

**Play the first song here**

The light from the outside was bright as the sun was getting high above the horizon for the nice bright glow of the morning warmth. Crescent was the first one to walk out of the airship and he was followed by Houston. All four of them jogged when they were clear of the airship.

"Wolfe you stay back and provide cover fire. The same goes for you Jacket. Houston on me and take down the human targets first, I'll get the droids. Now let's move crew!" Crescent said into the comms. The crew was about fifty feet away from the closest field. They landed outside it to avoid being killed on the drop in.

Crescent kept a decent pace as Jacket was sprinting from the rear, he was weighed down heavily but he had to carry worse.

Houston spotted his first target and his outline appeared in the vision of the crew.

"Don't attack yet. Let me spot them first and we'll attack them at the same time." Houston said as he unslung his DMR. He jogged in front of the group and he had a decent view of their surroundings and all the human targets were marked. From there, the rest of the crew prepared their electro rounds.

"We hit all of them at the same time. Got it?" Crescent took aim.

"On three. One… Two… Three." And like that, all the crew fired the electro rounds to stun the first wave of human guards. So from here all the droids spent several seconds to process the situation.

"Light 'em up." Crescent said in a cold tone.

Houston kept an eye out for human targets as the rest of the crew dispatched the droids next. A majority of them didn't see the bullets coming. Jacket quickly tugged on the BT G1, from there he latched on the pipe for the first canister and ignited the spark at the end. Soon the BT unleashed a straight sting of orange fire.

The puff of the fire was spread out took a moment for the cocoa plants to catch fire. It was all compact to the point of all of the plants would brush leaves with each other. Crescent glanced at the first field and from there, it looked like that nothing was happening.

"Oh please tell me the damn Blow Torch is working." Wolfe said as he kept his eyes open for new targets. Nothing made their way yet.

As Wolfe said that, Houston spotted a squad of droids heading their way. There were about a dozen of them in total and spread themselves out.

"We got contacts!" Houston crouched down and took aim with his DMR. The ACOG scope on it was following the closest target. He took a deep breath and exhaled. As he exhaled, he squeezed the trigger.

Like that, the helmet of the droid was severed and flung in the air spinning about. Wolfe provided backup for Houston and fired controlled bursts at the squad. The machines registered the Payday Gang as their current hostiles and opened fire.

Crescent could see the reflective light emanating from the bullets that zoomed past his mask. It was too risky to take out this sword and shield. There was enough of cover to even get close enough.

Then there was a smoke emanating from Crescent's left corner of his eye. He looked at it as he ducked down. The plants caught fire with Jacket lighting a portion of the field and jogged on ahead by twenty feet to light another part of the same field. A bullet was wedged in the back of Jacket's armor as he jerked forward, but he didn't waver in lighting up the field. Crescent exposed himself from cover and unleashed his Knight's SR. He missed several rounds, but the aggression on Jacket was too much that he needed to handle.

Houston spotted a two human targets in the distance.

"We have SNIPERS!" Houston shouted as he crouched down. When he said that, every member was set on high alert. Crescent and Jacket kneeled down. Jacket holstered the BT and equipped his Piece and opened fire on the droids that appeared to their right. Wolfe and Houston were standing next to another field that was 30 feet away from Jacket and Crescent. Wolfe took out his bottle and had his lighter serve its purpose and the cloth at the end emanated heat.

"We better move." Wolfe said in a calm tone. He tossed the bottle as far as he could on the untouched field the glass shattered. After 10 seconds, the flames of from the bottle emerged among the plants.

A cracking of the air informed the crew that the sniper team was ready to fire at them. It was about 30 meters away and the pair set themselves up in a small hill that looked over the plantation. Houston took a pop shot at an incoming droid and missed. Eventually it stood over the cover Wolfe and Houston were in. When it showed its black visor, Wolfe had his knuckle buster blade set inside what would be a person's temple. He twisted the blade as it made room for the small object. Wolfe took hold of the droid and pulled it close. Three bullets pierced the hull.

Wolfe withdrew his blade and it shifted into the pistol form and fired three bullets and missed every shot. "I got a present for ya!" Houston shouted as he sprinted to Wolfe side and pulled a pin to a fragmentation grenade and shoved it into the new hole in the helmet. Houston turned to his right and jumped forward to avoid the gun fire. Wolfe let go of the droid and raised both of his hands and kicked the droid in the stomach region. The remaining balance system was still functioning but nothing else as the droid stumbled and the head exploded in close vicinity of three other droids. Among them was a Taser droid.

Wolfe unslung his G36. "Whoo! Got me a Taser!"

"Fucking phenomenal, now take out those Snipers, Jacket and I are pinned down!" Crescent and Jacket ducked down in a ditch picking off the droids heading their way.

_I wonder how I wasn't shot yet_. Wolfe smiled under his mask. It was pure red and white, there are no gray areas and he looked to his left to see Houston get on his feet. He had a lit Molotov in hand and tossed it before moving on. As he did that, Houston deployed the sentry gun to protect their flank as they moved on. It was set to explode when the thing runs out of ammo. The fields were burning now but it wasn't enough to get the job done.

"Come on." Houston ordered as he sprinted forward. Sure he was younger than everyone, but he had the energy to burn so he was way faster than Wolfe could ever be. There was another crack in the air a pile of dirt kicked up a foot away from Jacket.

"HURRY UP!" Crescent shouted.

Houston and Wolfe made it across the pathway to be at a tree line that was 70 feet away from Crescent and Jacket. From the outlines, Houston and Wolfe learned that snipers weren't completely aware of their presence. Houston took aim with his DMR. The sights were set on one of the droid snipers.

He squeezed the trigger and the machine jerked back and laid flat on its back. The second one was fired at and he missed the first shot. He adjusted himself in time. The second sniper was dispatched quickly.

"Snipers are eliminated!" Houston shouted as he crouched down and started to pick off several droids in the distance. Wolfe provided cover fire.

"Great!" Crescent stood up and so did Jacket. All the closest droids were dispatched and the sheer number the assault was increasing. They all have to move faster. Crescent took out his Molotov, lit it and tossed it to the field they were close to. Jacket spent several seconds starting another fire for good measure.

Then a trio of Shields appeared.

"We got Shields!" Crescent shouted as he sprinted across the pathway. Jacket followed close behind. As that happened, Houston spotted a lumbering bulky figure in the distance. The thing was camouflaged in a digital grey and black. In its arms was a Milkor MGL (Multiple Grenade Launcher.) Capable of firing six 40 mm grenades in a rapid pace. What made it worse was that the weapon as in the hands of a Skulldozer.

Skulldozers behave like regular Bulldozers but had a better everything. Armor, weapons, targeting and were all equipped with voice boxes. _Lucky us._

"OUTTA THE WAY! Elite Unit coming through!" The Skulldozer shouted as it fired a shell in Crescent's direction but the shot wavered off and made a cloud of dirt to the right of Crescent. He wasn't expecting it and leaned back and fell down.

"We gotta a Skull!" Wolfe shouted as he pressed his back against the tree.

Jacket noticed the shield units heading their way and he unhinged the canister he was using. The compressed gas was ready to implode given the chance. Jacket was going to make that happen. He raised his right arm and tossed the canister to the trio heading their way. What happened was that the canister struck the shield and rolled off it.

Crescent caught on for Jacket and fired several rounds at the canister and it exploded for the shields to be knocked over. By the time the machines registered the situation. Jacket was in their visors with a hammer reaching for the sky. Crescent killed the third droid as Jacket finished off smashing the helmet in for the second droid.

"VRT, Shields, no longer in service." Jacket unslung the BT G1 and hinged the next canister in place.

"We had to fall back."

"Fine. Just torch the fields on that side while we get the attention." Wolfe said as he loaded his third clip into his G36.

Another puff of dirt appeared was a meter and half away from Wolfe. He felt the brief shock wave. "Mother Fucka!"

"Is that all you got!?" The dozer spent it's ammunition and backed off as 4 droids pressed on with the gunfire. Among them was a Taser and Shield. Houston slapped another clip to his DMR, and as that happened, he noticed that the Skulldozer was preoccupied. So with that, he broke from cover.

It looked like the Skulldozer stored it's ammo inside its own torso.

"Cover me!" Houston shouted as he jogged and kept firing at the machines.

"Shit!" Wolfe popped from cover to see the Shield distracted by Houston leaving it's right side completely wide open. He took it out no problem. Two of the droids were shot down by Houston during his approach. The last two focused on one target each. One had Houston the other Wolfe.

Houston's DMR clicked empty. _Oh shit_. Houston was about to lit up and the droid was the one shot up. The new holes riddled the body as Houston ducked down to load a new clip. Since Wolfe did that, he felt a tug to his upper right shoulder and felt himself become knocked back. He returned to his normal target and finished it off.

The Skulldozer finished reloading. The Milkor was angled to up the hill. "I'm going to rock your world!"

A large bullet thumped out of the weapon and struck the ground in front of Wolfe. He fell backwards. As the bay door of the ammunition was closing, a glass object struck the inside. Before the Skulldozer could turn to him, Houston ducked down.

The heat was rising inside the body of the Skulldozer. "… I'm screwed…" From there, the once mighty dozer stood there. Like all bullets, they have lead inside the shell casing to ignite the fire for it to propel to leave the chamber of a weapon. But when there's fire without the bullet leaving the weapon…

The first thing to escape the body of the Skulldozer was that the head. It was there the moment the entire body expanded and fragments of the limbs swung through the air. All that remained was the two boots of the dozer.

Houston sprinted up the hill to check on Wolfe. He was on his back and clearly breathing. "How'd it go?"

"The Dozer is down." Houston slung the DMR over his shoulder. "Now, get the fuck up." Houston offered a hand. Wolfe took it and was brought to his feet. The two were ready to face anything and continued to use the rest of their Molotovs to set the fields ablaze.

Crescent loaded the next clip into his weapon. He was on his second to last one from all the droids he destroyed. Jacket stood over a field and fire gushed from the BT. It was the second to last canister the two of them had. They would have to regroup with Wolfe and Houston. He looked behind himself. They had just sprinted through 14 acres of fields in ten minutes. The view of it all was an interesting sight. All the crops were burning with the scent of printed lien. Not that the crew could smell, because of the rebreathers, but that was how Crescent imagined it.

"VRT, Crescent, please follow." Jacket nodded to the direction of Houston and Wolfe.

The fires released the blackened smoke into the air. Every guard here knows that the something was happening. They have to hurry. The risk of being overrun by droids and enforcers could happen soon.

Crescent jogged to Jacket and two made their way to Houston and Wolfe.

"A Taser is down." Houston cheered himself when he took cover. The hill overlooking the fields was decent enough to make his DMR even more awesome. But he couldn't feed her no more, he was on his last clip. Wolfe was the same way as well.

While they fought the droids, Houston and Wolfe had four more Molotovs left to burn the fields, so now, 8 acres of cocaine was engulfed with fire.

"Hey guys, Jacket and I are on our way!" Crescent shouted into the comms.

"Hurry up, we need to regroup." Wolfe responded as Houston took pop shots.

After a good twenty seconds, the figures of Jacket and Crescent appeared. Both of them were gasping for air when they reached them. The area Wolfe and Houston claimed was a small house that had almost nothing inside as the group took cover. It was 13 minutes in to the job.

"Before you guys talk. Get some ammo." Wolfe finally unlatched the ammo bag from his back and set it on the ground. Houston and Crescent went first to refill their ammo while the other two took pop shots. The same process happened for Jacket and Wolfe. Now the entire crew was ready for another go.

"We've cleaved through the defenses. It's probably a fact now that enemies reinforcements are at our back be pinned into a corner. We have to clear the way toward the shore line, Hector left us a boat there." Crescent stated as he chambered the first round into his Knight's SR.

"So we just keep kicking ass?" Houston chuckled.

"Exactly." Crescent noticed something rather large in the distance. It looked like the outline to a Bulldozer, but it would be about two feet taller than the normal ones. Something shinning was reflecting the sun. "Hey Wolfe what's that?"

Wolfe took a deep breath as he looked out the of window. From the view, he could have sworn his heart skipped a beat. It was death itself. "GET DOWN!" Wolfe shouted as he jumped forward to take Jacket to the ground. Crescent and Houston caught on and they ducked down to lay on the floor.

In the distance. A large Machine with an oval helmet was locked on the house. The hull of the machine was balance with bulky legs to support the ability to compensate for the size of the Minigun. The ammo belt was tightened so it wouldn't dangle for the Beetle. The 100 pound Minigun was slowing down as the barrel transcended from one to six.

The wall that separated them from the outside shattered apart. Splinters flying in every direction. The beams to the house weren't there anymore and the house began to collapse under its own weight. The gunfire stopped as each of the crew stood up and sprinted outside. The house was at their back so what shot at them before didn't have a good angle on them.

"VvERt, What, vrt happened?" Jacket asked as the three of them sprinted back to a ditch.

"A Beetle happened, that's what. Just think of it as walking tank compared to the Bulldozers, and that one has a FUCKING Minigun! Those things hunt by Thermal imagining, and we can't go Predator on it because we have NO time." Wolfe shouted as he fumbled to get his mask on straight. (He's talking about using Mud to hide one's body heat.)

"How do we fight against that?" Houston asked. He secretly wished that one of them brought some kind of RPG.

"We don't have the firepower, we need to pull out where we came from." Houston pointed out.

"Can't work that way. Jacket spotted vans in the distance, we have about three minute before they drop down on us like a hammer." Wolfe stated. He calmed down after seeing how pathetic he acted. (How he views himself)

"VvvRt, People, the Beetle, EErT is approaching." Crescent said. He recorded Wolfe as he said Beetle so the sound was in his temporary memory of his recorder.

The head of the Purple Hulking Monster was coming for them. The head had the red soul piercing lights lock on to their location. The Minigun was too low for it to fire at them.

"Die here or die heading back." Houston said half seriously.

_This is such bullshit_. Crescent said in his mind.

**Play the second Song now **

"Houston you run left and get ready to fire. Wolfe you go right to do the same. Jacket you're the fastest so hand me the BT, also give them your Molotovs." Crescent said as the two other members sprinted off. Jacket loaded a fresh canister and it was the last one. "Jacket go to our left, there's a ditch that's a foot deeper for you to duck down, its twenty feet from here." Jacket did as he was ordered.

All of them separated for Crescent to stand alone as the Beetle walked a different path. The steps of that monster was vibrating the ground.

"Today's a good day to die gentlemen." Crescent said as he smiled deviously under his mask.

"VRT, here here." Jacket did a light wave at Cresent's position.

"I didn't like living anyway." Wolfe chuckled.

"None of this is helping my confidence." Houston said into the comms. When he finished that sentence, the Beetle shoved a 20 foot tall tree out of its way. The Beetle noticed Crescent and prepared the Minigun. The barrels became a hazy black outline of a circle.

"Guys Let me draw it out and be ready to move on my mark." Crescent stated as he sprinted away from the Beetle, the Minigun started to rotate the barrels. So a hail of bullets rained to the burnt field of where Crescent was standing. He sprinted from his right to his left as the dirt kicked up behind him.

"Everyone fire now!" As soon as they heard that, each member popped from cover and started to unleash their entire clips at the machine. Jacket was directly to the left of it so the Beetle reacted slow enough to diviate the course of the Minigun.

"HOUSTON, toss a the bottle at the feet, WOLFE, you throw a bottle on the pathway form me to the Beetle NOW!" Crescent shouted as he turned his body and adjusted himself to run at the Beetle. He didn't bother slowing himself down. He was expelling all the reserves of his energy. His team was in danger, he focused on that.

The both of them did as ordered and the Molotovs flew through the air and shattered and quickly made fire.

"Jacket Get down!" Crescent added as he sprinted forward. With every step Jaune felt the flames of the bottles, nothing else matters. The fire soon claimed the dirt and emanated from it. The Beetle could faintly see Crescent and the Beetle adjusted the Minigun to be rotating at Crescent firing bullet along the way. Crescent hadn't had a clearer plan in his whole life. The Grimm should fear him and so should Machines.

Crescent made it through the fire and the he jumped up so the Minigun was his support. What happened was that Beetle looked at Crescent in the mask. The BT was unleashed into the vison of the Beetle. From there the machine rotated the head as one eye was destroyed. Crescent sprinted forward and jumped off the Beetle. The heat that came from the BT scrambled the tracking system of the Beetle.

"Everyone NOW!" Crescent shouted.

From the ditch Jacket popped his Rooster mask and his hammer shifted into the shotgun. He blasted three shells to knock the Minigun off course to aim to the far left as he was coming in from the right. The weapon shifted into the hammer. He whacked the Minigun so that two of the barrels were bent and weapon shut those barrel down from use. He jumped up and over the Minigun. From there, Jacket raised the hammer from the sky to smash the left arm of the Beetle and the Minigun dropped from the weight.

From the left Houston showed up with his sabre drawn and severed the ammo belt to the Minigun and the weapon was set to shut down. Houston reversed the sabre and plundged it into the joint of the remaining arm. By the time the head rotated, it saw a demon mask and was given a right hook for the head to rotate.

Crescent stood above the Beetle. "Hey Jacket, a little help?"

Jacket smiled under his mask, and the hammer was flipped around the crowbar end to face toward Crescent. Then he tossed it through the neck of the Beetle. It was pierced through and it could be the adrenaline, but Crescent felt the fear from the machine. He took hold of each end of the weapon and twisted it with all of his might to the wiring gave in. It stretched apart and tore. Then with a one good twist the head of the Beetle was removed. Crescent held the head and dropped it as the it rolled down the body. Several clanks and the face was toward the Enforcers. The lights still beamed then slowly faded away.

"WHOSE NEXT!?" Crescent gave his war cry.

An enforcer watched all of this happen before his eyes. His entire team thought that the Beetle was going to finish off the clowns but they turned it around with fucking… Molotovs.

"Fuck this, nothing you say will convince me otherwise." The Enforcer dropped his weapon. Other followed his example.

"What the hell are you doing!?" A Commander shouted.

"Did you just see that? No fucking way." Another enforcer lowered his weapon and sat down on the grass.

As the enforcers bickered, the Payday Gang was no longer in sight. An enforcer at the tree hill watched as all four of them sprinted off into the distance and board a boat. It was all clever, planned to the changes. The problem was that, the enforcers prepared for a fire fight, not many of them brought equipment to put out the fires. The ones that remained did their best.

In the distance, the boat carrying the Payday Gang was off to claim a boat of Mendoza's profits. _May Dust have mercy on the crew of that boat_. The enforcer looked away from the lake and turned back to help put out the fires.

**Holy crap. That was awesome. I mean we have all this crap happening and the Beetle going down. (Deep Breath) Gage to me is probably the coolest thing to come from the Payday 2 Web Series. I also greatly enjoy his actor. Also, Are you surprised by Houston showing up for the crew? If you are, Great, because I was worried that the story may have been too easy to predict at times. Also, I don't really like to use the soundtracks from the material I'm writing from, mostly because I want it be refreshing for the readers during the story. But "Die" it fit the situation so perfectly, So did you like how I introduced Houston? Gage? The Beetle? Molotovs? I hope you enjoyed the hell out of this chapter, I'll make more Original Heists depending how readers feel about this one. Broke the record the longest chapter, again. Thank Each and every one of you and have a kickass day.**

**Edit: I forgot to mention that Houston is using the DMR from the Halo Games. As in the semi automatic shot awesome cannon. :-)**

**Crimson Heresy: **Sorry the sentry gun didn't make it. But they will be used in a different heist.

**Heisting4Days:** Oh yeah, I guess I did blaze it. Thanks for reading.

**Iandude: **Sorry that the grenade launcher didn't make it. What was going to happen was that Houston and Wolfe were going to disarm and disembowel the Skulldozer. To take the ammo and weapon. I hope you like the part where Jaune and Wolfe bickered with one another.

**Lukefang:** I hope you liked the clothing and the Molotovs.

**Petty Officer 'Waffles:** I hope you liked the chapter. Also, I Gage is probably my second favorite thing about Payday, the first being Wolf. Depend on how people think of this heist, I'll start to think up more Original Heists.

**MightyPrussia:** Thank you for voting.

**Vulcan2312:** I have no idea why, but I mentally envisioned Vulcan Raven from the Metal gear games talk in his voice as I read your vote.

**Guest 1 and 2: **Thank you for voting.

**RyderRosas:** Thanks for voting, reading, and no need for kisses.


	19. Chapter 19, The Tropical Heist part 2

**I just wanted to say thank you to a couple of readers for helping me brainstorm a bunch for my story and what to do for the future. The songs for this chapter will be "**Master of Shadow**" from the Persona 3 soundtrack. Now let's finish the second half.**

**Song Link: ** watch?v=8fHPs58tKXQ

"So, they claimed the fields to bathe in fire." Detective Sam said as she walked along the dirt pathway. Violet walked beside her.

"From what the tech team salvaged, they concluded that the machine's sensors was scrambled and then defeated the Beetle. Then after that, they cut across the fields and made it to the small dock. They boarded a small boat and drove to the middle of the lake. Those that won't talk to us still agree with the same thing, the Payday Gang was unstoppable."

"Glass shards were collected in the ashes meaning makeshift weapons, it was either unplanned or clever." Sam pointed out for herself. Violet didn't react to it. He was accustomed to how Sam prefers to think out loud.

As Sam spoke, a department rookie drove up on the water with small speed boat, the kind that was meant for four people. He docked and dismounted leaving for Violet and Sam to board it. Sam first then Violet second, he started the motor again and the two zoomed off to the center of the lake.

"Is that real?" Sam asked as she noticed a set of large metallic object was sprouting from the water.

"Yep." Violet chuckled.

"WHOSE NEXT!?" Crescent shouted. It was a clear and he gave his all. And all of it was a bluff, they couldn't stand a chance against the forces that were homing on them, and so Crescent jumped down from the now beheaded Beetle.

"What now?" Crescent asked he turned to Jacket.

"We run. Their ranks are divided, we use the confusion." Houston pointed out as he slammed a new magazine into his DMR. Everyone immediately agreed to that notion and turned around to sprint back to the lower hill.

Each step got lighter, all of them still happy and surprised to be alive. Jacket nearly tripped over the same Skulldozer that Houston destroyed. The Skull faceplate was sticking out of the dirt. He punted it as the faceplate landed into a section of the fields that was in the process of burning.

The area of where they encountered the Beetle was vacant. The droids that were there all backed off to avoid being collateral damage to the Beetle, so the remaining machines regrouped with the incoming forces. Jacket tossed the final Molotov as they passed a small field before they reached the water. To burn what they could.

At the dock was small speed boat with a full tank of gas along with a crate in the back. It was full to the brim with ammunition. Wolfe, Houston, and Jacket stocked up on what they spent in the fight with the Beetle. Crescent rushed the driver's seat then started the boat.

"Hold onto to something!" He shouted. The crew listened to him as the boat excelled forward. Each of them were still on board.

"How's the BT?" Wolfe asked as he slammed a fresh magazine.

"We spent all the canisters and the current one is about halfway."

"Got it." Houston said as he flicked off several leaves that were somehow on his weapon.

"Jacket, you good?" Wolfe asked.

"VRT, Good. eerrT, Beyond good." Jacket stated as he took out a small stun gun from his back pocket. He stabbed his skin and gave himself a nice jolt for the next part of the job. The water splashed and the crew was finally close enough to first boat. It wasn't like some giant 3,000 person cruise liner, but instead a boat meant to carry 50 people instead. Houston found the grappling hook Hector promised. It was gun that was attached with rope. It was self-pulling and could carry two people at a time.

When it was shot, Crescent and Houston were the ones to go first. They were heavy but Hector spared no expense. Houston was the first one on top; he aimed his TMP around for no one to attack him.

"Clear." Houston said as he pulled himself over the railing. Crescent followed. Jacket and Wolfe took hold and they were able to be pulled up. Jacket was the very last on to do so, and when they we half way there, Jacket took out a grenade and dropped it. The explosion happened by the time he reached the railing.

All members of the crew boarded the boat as there was no one on there to shoot at them on the way in.

"They boarded from this location." Violet judged the frame of the boat that was now barely visible from the sunlight. "They destroyed their own means of escape on the way in."

"No they didn't, it was a means to get the main ship. That boat underwater was the transfer vehicle. Plus, these are the cartels we're dealing with; everything they do is a display of power." Sam stated.

"That would explain this then." Violet said as he looked out into the water for the same metallic object sprouting from the water.

The Crew was ready to go. On the shores, the forces there were already began to rally means to come out into the water as well. "Hey people, check this out." Wolfe said as Jacket kept watch.

Three lifeboats dashed on the water, they were of the non-combatant workers. _That makes everything a lot easier; they probably thought that we wanted to blow up the boats_. Crescent turned around. Jacket had his Piece at the ready.

"Jacket, you and Wolfe secure this boat and go to the bridge and activate the auto pilot, if not, abandon it and join the next one. Houston and I will do the same if the one we're on doesn't have the product, we'll come back to this one."

"Hey guys, hold still for a moment." Houston closed his eyes and opened them again for the Crew to have blue outlines. "So we can keep track of each other."

"VRT Move, People." Jacket's recorder played as he lightened the weight by finally taking off the BT. It was useless at the that point.

Houston and Crescent sprinted forward and the gap between the boats was two feet. So they crossed it with no problem. The deck was clear as well with several bits of furniture all gleaming and from the bar, pops two droids. The same model type from the fields.

"We got security. Keep an eye out, people." Crescent said as he ducked down a crouch as Houston took cover behind a pillar. They were interlocked and took pot shots every couple of seconds.

Jacket and Wolfe heard the gun shots as they continued to move on. It took several seconds before they reached the doorway to enter the lower decks. All around them was a dance floor with scattered boxes and fold out chairs. Above them was a nice vacant air vent. Inside was a set of glowing blue eyes with fury.

Crescent had enough of this whack-a-Grimm crap! He drew his shield and placed it over his chest and crouched down and had his Knight's SR sit along the rim of the shield. A riot shield stance to be blunt. When the first droid stuck its shiny helmet out, it was blasted at the center. From there the second droid exposed itself as well. Crescent had it in his sights.

_Click_. His weapon was empty.

The droid fired and Crescent lowered his shoulders further to hide behind his shield. It got a good four shots before Crescent was tagged in the upper right shoulder. He lost his balance because he was crouched down and fell back. Crescent waited for the next bullet, but in the corner of his eye, he noticed that Houston charged forward and unloaded half a clip into the droid.

Crescent shook his head and got himself back on his feet. When he was done, Houston checked his wound. The bullet grazed the skin and it wasn't serious.

"Come on, we have to hurry." Crescent said to get back at the task. Houston moved in front as he opened the door for Crescent to peek in and he fired several rounds into the hall, downing two droids. Houston kept the pressure with his weapon when Crescent took cover. They continued onward.

The blue eyes of the figure lowered itself to the bars of the vent; it was eager, and ready. The machine's scrambler was set to go off the moment it pops out from cover. Below, Wolfe couldn't have the door budge. So Jacket came in with his hammer, and with a two good swings, the door was knocked down. Both of them were ready to continue until a strange hollow sound of metal hit the floor. Jacket was the first to look as a bladed baton. Grinded along the beak of his mask. It shoved him aside and stumbled forward. Wolfe took raised his G36 for it the bladed baton to slice the sling for the weapon to fall down from the weight.

Wolfe drew his Knuckle Buster and it shifted to the bladed end as he slashed horizontally for the enemy to back off. This was a unique enemy class that saw a decent amount of action. It was developed as a deterrent against enemy special forces, in which the Payday Gang could fall into that category.

Jacket shook his head as there was a darkened line on his mask. It was angled downward on the beak of the Rooster mask.

"This'll sting a little!" The enemy was called a Cloaker. A droid meant for spec ops, but something went wrong with the programming, and as it was too brutal for the public to handle. Someone somewhere was still making these and selling them. It just so happens that the Mendoza Cartel purchased some of them.

The Cloaker reversed its legs so it was angled like a Prey Mantis and it braced itself to jump forward with a downward Crescent kick aimed at Jacket's head. From there, it was in the process of doing so, and Jacket sprinted forward to grab the Cloaker mid-flight and bring it to the ground. It adjusted its programing and it reversed its arms to put Jacket's left arm into a lock.

From that, it was ready to break the arm. As it twisted the arm, it was smashed in the helmet as the goggle eyes were knocked to the right side. Jacket was release and Wolfe came from above with his Knuckle buster and smashed the helmet in. The wiring underneath sparked as the goggle looking eyes dropped and shut down.

Wolfe fixed his posture.

"vvERvT, Thanks." Jacket nodded as he turned around to continue to search the boat.

Crescent headshotted a droid and it fell to its right as he and Houston ran along the hallway into the cargo hold. At the same time, so did Jacket and Wolfe.

"We have the product on our boat." Houston stated as he and Crescent saw several rows of packaged product on all lined up and labeled.

"Yeah, that's cool, but we have a problem." Wolfe responded.

"What's that?" Crescent asked.

"There's a shit ton of weapons on this one, it looks like these guys are gearing up for war." Wolfe widened his eyes. Jacket smiled as he walked up to pick up a nice looking weapon. It was what they needed to get the job done.

"So we blow the ship." Crescent stated. It didn't matter, Hector wanted just the one boat, but there's no way the four of them can claim another. So with that, they're going to have to make it sink into the water.

"Jacket's got his hands on some special weapons. We're heading up now to get it on your boat." Wolfe said as he looked at the blue outlines that was on the other side of the metal wall he stared at. It was kind of freaky but cool at the same time.

_We have to move now, we spent too much time on these boats._ Crescent thought.

"Houston, you go regroup with them. I'll set the autopilot." Crescent stated that and without a word, Houston sprinted from his place back out the door. Crescent looked back at Wolfe and Jacket. It looked like they were fighting some kind of melee droid.

"Fucking Cloakers." Wolfe said as he loaded a fresh mag. Jacket wasn't knocked down this time. They collected themselves and moved out from the hold to get back to deck.

Crescent sprinted up the same staircase and but down an opposite hall for him to find several droids taking cover and hunkering down in a room between Crescent and the bridge. He hugged the wall and prepared himself of the bullets.

In the hall on a floor below the deck, Houston was in a narrow hall that was almost completely dark. Then with a wave of black, Houston was knocked back by feeling something the shape of a rectangle. It was foot. _It must be a Cloaker_. Houston thought as he raised his TMP. By the time he noticed the figure again, it was like there was some sort of stinging sensation. He looked down to see a dark spot along his arm. He was cut by something. It messed with his concentration and lost his thoughts about his teammate's outlines.

"What's going on out there?" Wolfe called out through the comms.

"Focus on your task alright." Houston snapped back.

_This is too good for a Cloaker._ Houston concluded as he took several steps backwards. From the back he was kicked forward which caused him to stumble. With this kind of fight on his hands, Houston didn't lose control of his emotions. He blinked and inhaled a calm amount of air from his nose. Then he focused.

…

He scanned the area.

…

He was ready.

**Play the song now**

… Something was caught on the far left corner of his eyes. Houston drew his sabre for it to block the next stab coming in from a new target. Several sparks of metal clashed until Houston got a good look at his attacker.

It was a young woman draped in pure black clothing. Her hair was kept short and her eyes had a lot of shadowing done. She appeared to be in her late teens or early twenties. Her expression as sinister. So tried to go for a low cut and Houston countered. This fighter was some sort of Advanced Enforcer. She smiled as she took a step back and faded from view. It wasn't enough for his semblance to take effect.

_The hell?_ Houston had a decent view of her, or was the hallway too dark enough to see his opponent. He blinked his eyes and focused himself again. He needed to adjust himself. The sabre was ready to move at a notice when he sees the target again.

"Ha!" The woman exhaled as she appeared to Houston's left as it was a blade sticking out of nowhere, no… It was coming from the wall. Then it dawned on Houston.

He didn't react quickly enough and was grazed again. The blade pulled back before Houston took a good look at it. In the moment, Houston turned to his left to see a doorway to get out of this narrow hallway. He took out his TMP and blasted at the door and sprinted toward it and jumped through. The door shattered as he regained his balance. The room he stood in was empty as there wasn't much light in it as well.

He stood in the center and looked around. He didn't see anything, and that bugged him.

_Calm down, remember, and find my center_. Houston repeated his personal mantra. At the corner of the room, Houston could see a darkened shape of person, but it wasn't moving. He narrowed his vision, but he couldn't see his opponent clearly.

"So you're the Payday Gang? I always thought you guys were gods, but you're not proving anything of value." A feminine voice echoed into the room.

"I'm new, and more than enough for you to handle." Houston fired back. _Don't give in_. _Focus_.

The figure faded and Houston prepared himself. She came from the sides and behind. So that leaves her to come from… _above_. Houston looked up to see shiny object blink in what little light the room had. Houston stepped back by the time the blade pierced the air of where he stood. Houston didn't waste time and noticed the wrist coming from above, and like that, he jumped and took hold of the wrist then yanked downward. From that the figure fell out of the ceiling and appeared before him.

"I got you now." Houston said as the figure looked at him. She was clear this time. He focused with all of his might and created a mental image of her. There was no time to prepare a swing of the sabre. He clenched a fist instead and swung at the woman's right shoulder knocking her back from him and she rolled around then faded.

"Shithead." The same voice echoed. Houston didn't respond. He stood completely still and when the next attack was aiming for his right leg, Houston swiped the incoming blade and flicked the end for him to graze the wrist of his opponent.

The voice scoffed and backed off. Houston took the same stance again, and when the voiced aimed a pistol at him, his TMP was already in that direction and fired several rounds. Each bullet struck a wall.

"How are you doing that!?" The voice scrambled.

"Fuck you that's how." Houston smiled under his mask. A little bonus thing about his semblance is, when his mind becomes clear enough, Houston's outlines of figure, he can vaguely predict where the next is coming from. Since his opponent was a clear image, Houston couldn't make an outline right away because of it. But now that he got a good look at her, he could see wherever direction she was coming from, making her ability completely useless.

"Fuck you!" The orange outline drifted off into the corner like that, it was no longer in visible. Houston couldn't see her anymore. This enemy was most likely a Mendoza enforcer and served as a guard to these boats.

**The song should end here.**

BoTOOM! Suddenly Houston felt the entire ship shake and he remembered the crew needed him. He sprinted out to see Jacket and Wolfe standing on the deck firing several rounds at incoming boats full of droids.

"Hey guys, I'm in the bridge, I've updated the autopilot, and we are now on the move." Crescent said as he turned around as there was four droids and one Bulldozer among the destroyed security. On the way in, Crescent took care of them and killed the Dozer by headshots.

"That's great, now get out here and help us." Wolfe remarked. As he talked, Jacket fired his Piece to disable a droid driver and a small boat toppled over in the water. Houston appeared by his side.

"What we got?" Houston asked.

"Several boats came to our location. Apparently they all grew a pair." Wolfe said as he loaded his second to last magazine. Jacket was fine on ammo since he took controlled bursts.

"Well we did find a nice pile of guns, but we can't claim them at the same time, so fuck it! We got what we need." Wolfe said as he kept an eye out for more incoming boats.

"Crescent said for us to destroy it, did you set it up?" Houston asked.

"No." Wolfe replied.

_Damn!_ Houston thought.

"We didn't have to." Wolfe turned around and walked past Houston.

"What did you have in mind?" Houston asked as he turned around. There was Jacket and Wolfe. The both of them had RPG-7s in hands. As in those designed explosive weapons that you see in all kinds of modern war films. The one always used by the bad guys.

The RPG-7, the Rocket Propelled Grenade. It was a thing of beauty, for the heist anyways. Jacket found them, when they raided the other boat. There was a pile of them with several shells to be reloaded, but the sake of time, they had to abandon them.

"VRT, These, my friend." Jacket walked to Houston and passed him the heavy weapon. It was a decent weight, of 15 Ibs. So from there the small aiming lens popped out and it was prepped for firing. On the side of it, there was the phrase spray painted on. 'Aim toward enemy.'

"Alright boys, get ready." Wolfe said as he leveled his aim toward the second boat which was now 20 meters away from the one they were on. "Aim for the hull."

Jacket took his and stood beside Houston. Then with a moment of still air. The weapons were unleashed.

BoooTTEEEERRRR KROM!

The streaks of grey smoke lead a burly trail to the other boat. The first shot struck the metal and weakened it. Then the second and third RPGs, it pierced though and struck the ammo stored inside. From that, the imploding sounds of exploding ammunition was echoed then burst out of the boat.

Jacket turned around and walked toward the main couch that was at the far end of the deck with an umbrella hanging over it. He turned around to see the other two staring at the boat they just destroyed. Jacket didn't look at it because he thought it'd be cooler. "VRT, come on." Jacket dropped his arms and did a half-hearted wave.

"Fuck you, I'm watching this." Wolfe sneered with a laugh at the end. Every job so far, Wolfe wasn't allowed to blow something up, sure small ones, but not against an entire fucking boat with more stuff to make it explode even more. He wanted to enjoy the view. Houston joined in on the sight as well.

BoTOOM, KATooBSSSssH, KOooTOMMMM.

"Oh my dust." A Mendoza solider uttered as he watched from the fields to see the smoke coming from the boat that was just loaded several days before. Others stopped to absorb the spectacle. The smoke rising from the first boat took several seconds before the smoke reached the land and shadowed the enforcers that stared.

"Well, this will be fun." A feminine voice said sarcastically as she stood beside the observing soldier. She had dark eye shadow and didn't like to be bothered by the members of the cartel. She turned around to walk down the paths to do something. She wasn't going to tell anything to grunts.

Back on the boat

"Oh crap, I can't believe we pulled it off." Crescent said as he walked out onto the deck to join the others. Houston and Wolfe finally walked away from the edge to walk to the same sets of furniture with the where Jacket sat at.

He took a deep breath…

… It was Success…

…

… The Mendozas were made to look like fools…

…

… They pulled it off again…

…

… For some reason, Crescent felt a new sensation coming from the back of his head. It was a whisper. It was too faint to know what it all meant, but Crescent shook his head and the voice disappeared…

"So they stole a boat and sank the other one." Violet said as he raised his scroll to check the time. "We have about one hour and twenty-four minutes before the higher ups show their faces."

The metal figure in the water was the frame was once a small boat to carry munitions on behalf of the Mendoza Cartel. They would have a lot of explaining to do with such hardware and equipment. Several officers were on small rafts to check the debris and see if they could figure out what happened even further.

"Good, let's see what can we salvage and figure out before they arrive." Sam said as turned to look back at the shore. Violet caught on and rotated the wheel for it return back to land.

It's been twenty minutes since the team drove away from the shores of the Mendoza Cartel's plantation fields. From the lack of boats that acted as the counterattack, it was all rather small in comparison to what they had to fight through.

Little did the Crew know, the reason for that was because half the attack force were all frightened to what the Payday Gang could do and their superiors had to take a while to rally them again. It was all done too late though. The Payday Gang was already on down the very rivers that twisted into dozens of possible directions. Plus, all the boats they could have rallied were all thoughtlessly tossed at them where Wolfe and Jacket picked them off on their approach.

So for the moment, they headed toward the main coordinates of where Hector told them to rally at. It would be another thirty minutes before they would arrive though.

"So who was the one who said it was a good day to die?" Wolfe smiled as he lifted the mask off of his face and rested along his forehead.

"Yeah yeah." Crescent said as he removed his mask. "It was in the spur of the moment." Jaune chuckled as he sat down on a different chair.

"VRT, What was, purpose?" Jacket played on his recorder.

"No reason for it." Daniel said as he leaned forward. "Hector doesn't care if we lived or died back at that those fields."

"He's right." Jaune nodded his head. The weight of his equipment started to express how heavy it all was when he spent all of his energy. He would have loved to remove it all, but they weren't in the clear. Something else could happen at any time.

"Alright guys, take up posts and be prepared for what could come at us." Jaune said as he pulled down on his mask when he stood back up.

Each of them had their moment to catch their breaths. They prepped their weapons and took the time prep their weapons. Crescent was finally able to able to remove the fucking ammo bag he had to carry for the team to collect on ammo. With the pouch limp and empty, each member took different posts on the boat. Crescent was at the bridge, Wolfe had the cargo, while Houston and Jacket were at the deck.

For good measure, Houston made outlines for each of them to reduce the chance of friendly fire.

"What did you mean by that Hector doesn't care about the outcome?" Wolfe remembered of what Houston mentioned several moments before.

"Hector wants to piss off the Mendozas. Sure we acted as proxy for that motive, but we could have used more intel on the location. Such as the amount of hardware that existed at the site. AKA the Beetle." Crescent took a moment to catch his breath. "The money was too good to pass up and the mission was difficult to begin with. But now that we've proven that we can live through such an ordeal, Hector has to see us in a better light."

"In other words, we passed his test." Houston finished.

"Yes, that was the goal." Crescent responded.

Wolfe did a light nod to the thought. Sure it was tough, but they did it. Now they're on their way to claim their payday.

"Jacket, is something on your mind?" Houston asked since Jacket had little to say on the matter.

"VRT, Nothing. Just happy to, ert, continue operating." Jacket replied. Houston noticed the new scar on his mask. As well as two bladed batons were on both of his thighs. He didn't know that those were trophies from the Cloakers.

Jacket was able to lower his ammo pouches. He did so and felt the weight of the worry drop with it. He was ready for what comes next and just enjoyed the view of the water and the trees. Houston caught that vibe and decided to leave him alone. He remembered the Shadow woman that nearly killed him. He'll talk about that in a bit, when it seems appropriate.

Each of them remained quiet for the duration of the ride until Jacket spotted one of Hector's boats. Two of them started their engines and made their approach. There was five in total.

"Alright, guys rally up. Let me do the talking." Crescent spoke calmly into the comms as he walked back onto the deck. Houston lowered a roller ladder and from that, several armed men in casual clothing showed themselves. Three of them at first then the man himself, Hector.

He smiled as he looked at each of them. For the Crew, none of them smiled under their masks. Sure they survived, but Hector was still an unknown variable. If he chooses so, he could have his men attack the Crew.

Hector wore a beige suit that with a sky blue button up shirt under the coat. From that, Hector was obviously in his forties, but from that, he had a cold look in his eyes. They lacked any form of sympathy. He had lightly tanned skin and his nose a rounded for it complement his long face. His hair was cut short and combed backward. As a lieutenant, he would have to look presentable to his subordinates. Not that the Payday Gang fell under that label. This was a business transaction.

"Well hello my dear companions." Hector broke the ice.

"Good day Hector." Crescent said as he walked in front of the Crew.

"I received word of what happened, the fields are burning, a fraction of the garrison there was destroyed or too afraid to move, and you left a sinking message in the very lake that they have to clean up. I'm fucking fantastic!" Hector smiled as he walked toward Crescent.

"The mask thing is true eh?" Hector continued as Crescent decided to lighten up. He nodded to what Hector talked about.

"There was a cache of weapons, I think that was something they had planned out for you." Crescent spoke finally.

"Indeed, there were rumors of them making a sort of play." Hector's expression changed from playful to serious. "Now get the bags." Hector said as he looked at his men. None of them questioned what was said and did as they're told.

"Did you find anything else?" Hector asked.

"No, we didn't find anything out besides what the second boat carried."

"Good, good." Hector looked at the Crew. Each of them standing tall and didn't flinch as he scanned them. "Do you have reliable men?"

"Without a doubt in my mind." Crescent didn't hesitate as the question was asked.

"A good leader knows how to find loyalty." Hector responded.

"… Actually, a leader takes what he has the refines it so everyone will benefit from the trust." Crescent spoke from the heart. It may have been stupid, but Crescent didn't really care all that much. He wasn't in charge of a world larger than himself.

"You still have your optimism. Hold onto that for as long as you can." Hector said as he turned away from the Crew. Jacket tilted his head when Hector looked away. Not responding from being stared at, it took a lot of self-control from Jacket. Houston looked at Jacket and reminded him to calm down. Wolfe did the same.

Crescent couldn't take care of the problem, so he trusted the others to take care of it. By the time he looked back at Hector, he stood with his hands behind his back. From the side, two bags were tossed onto the deck. Then another bag was tossed, then another, and another. Finally a total of eight bags were loosely piled together. The same three men climbed back up the ladder to stand by one another. All were calm and didn't look at the Crew in the wrong way.

From that, Hector had men that did deals and none of them had a temper. He's serious on the deal with the Payday Gang.

"The police won't know this for a while, but what you've done was that you've destroyed a 3 million lien investment that took two years to set in motion. Sure it wasn't the entire planation, but still you gave them a black eye. Did you know that this location was the main supplier to the Commissar?"

Crescent responded by turning his head slightly. It was enough to answer his question.

"Indeed." He looked down toward his boat. "This is the bonus I was talking about." Two more bags were tossed back up to the deck. The first on looked like the rest and the second one, it was shaped differently. "Each bag has 50,000 lien inside."

Crescent recalled the Payout, the deal was for 400,000 lien. But the two extra bags were an unknown.

"Do you require transportation?" Hector asked. One of the boats below was prepped for the Payday gang to borrow.

"No, I already took care of that." Crescent nodded in direction the sun. Hector noticed that it was an airship coming their way. It was about thirty seconds before the airship hovered at the same level as the deck with the bay doors opening up.

"It's been a pleasure." Crescent said as he walked to the bags and took hold of one to carry.

"I'll let you know if there's more work in for you." Hector shouted over the sound of the airship.

Crescent nodded as the rest of the Crew helped him in loading up the bags. Jacket calmed down as he passed Hector. The bad blood was gone. Wolfe walked and so did Crescent while Jacket and Houston passed them the bags. It was done and the crew walked in and all of them sat down. Crescent stood at the bay door while looking at Hector. The both of them nodded as the doors closed.

"I take everything went well?" Bile asked over the intercom.

"Yeah, we almost died again, but other than that, we're great." Wolfe leaned back as it was just an hour ago that they started the assault on the fields. It felt like an eternity ago, but they still made it.

"EEeeerrT, Great job." Jacket tapped Houston's shoulder. He couldn't add another word for him because Jacket's recorder didn't have the word 'Houston' from the current tapes he used for the job.

"Thanks Jacket." Daniel said as he took off his mask. He released his DMR and set it down.

"Everyone, check the bags." Jaune said as he removed his mask as well.

None of them questioned it, and acted on the order. All the bags were full of money, and thankfully no bomb. Jaune didn't know Hector's methods but a bomb would have been ideal to dispatch them.

Jacket was the one to open the odd bag that was from the bonus. Inside, Jacket pulled it out. It was SCAR-H Assault Rifle, with several magazines inside and was the basic frame. The Special Operations Forces Combat rifle was what the letters stand for. The 'H' is a short term to say it was set to fire the 7.62x51mm rounds. Something that no one in the crew expected. Below it was more money. Jacket took the weapon out, the magazine was ejected and the chamber cleared. He held it in view of the crew. He passed it to Daniel.

"It's awesome, but not really my taste." He said as he passed it to Wolfe.

He had a good feel for it and aimed it at nothing. "Same here, I'm a little too attached to my G36."

"I don't need to see, it won't feel the same way to my SR." Jaune said as Wolfe passed it back to Jacket to be placed back inside the bag. All of them sat down and let themselves relax. Jaune walked to the cockpit and checked on Bile. He was given the second half of his payment.

"Thank you, now we're on our way to back to Vale. I hoped you enjoyed your vacation boys." Bile said as Jaune left the cockpit.

From the side locker, Bile kept a small cache of water bottles, but the airship had no toilet, so they would have to drink at their own discretion. Jaune took four of the dozen and tossed the bottles to each of them. Jacket opened his and drank in all in one go, Houston drank his bottle lightly, and Wolfe bitched about not having a soda instead.

"Hey guys, how about we finished that game." Bile blatantly suggested.

"Oh yeah, I think Daniel had the upper hand before we started the job." Jaune squinted as he dug into his memory. From there the group shook off the fatigue Jacket set up the board as Wolfe continued to complain that there wasn't any soda.

The flight went as expected. All of them had their pride but the thing about bladders is that they don't have a concept of pride. Bile had to land in the middle of nowhere so all of them could walk outside to do their business. Daniel and Bile were the only ones that didn't have to go. With the potty break out of the way, they all got back on the airship since they were halfway back to Vale.

As they played, Daniel talked about the woman he fought with back on the boat, and none of them knew who she was. The thought was taken seriously and all of them agreed to remember that for the future. They continued to play their game of monopoly.

During the journey, Jacket was able to bankrupt Jaune and Bile. Daniel knocked Wolfe out of the game so it was down to the wire. To prevent the possibly of cheating, Bile suggested that the ones who weren't playing had to roll on behalf of the last two players. Wolfe stared at Daniel with a half-baked murder grin. From there, Daniel rolled the dice, and landed on draw a card space block.

The whole airship was quiet.

"Each player must pay 40 dollars per house, or 80 dollars per hotel." Daniel read the card. The difference in play style was that Jacket invested in houses on the property he owned and Daniel went all out on hotels. He was bankrupted and couldn't mortgage his property in time. Jacket won the game.

Jacket leaned back and crossed his arms. "VRT, All parties, must accept eerT change."

Daniel and Bile laughed at the statement. Jaune smiled as he looked at his scroll. It was 9:47 in the morning, so they would arrive at Vale in about twenty minutes. During the flight, each member changed out of their clothing to relaxed ones. Walking out of an airship with matchy matchy outfits would be odd and memorable to see. Out of all of them, Jaune didn't remove his undershirt as he wore his hoodie over it. Each of them didn't show any interest in the reason for it.

The complete and total Payout was 475,000 lien for their work. The extra 75,000 came from the bonus from Commissar job along with the SCAR-H.

Jaune walked around to pass a bag to each member of the crew. Jaune took out 10,000 lien from the fifth bag. That means for his team, they would receive 240,000 lien and divided it among them for 80,000 per person. Jaune would claim the remaining 235,000 lien for him to use toward any future heists and or expenses. No one objected the share.

Jaune couldn't be able to carry such hot property on Beacon's grounds so Wolfe and the rest of them would take it to his house until Jaune could claim it. None of them wanted the SCAR and Gage wouldn't take it because he already has a dozen of them on display, so it would sit in Wolfe's workshop in the mean-time.

Bile arrived at Beacon in clear view and was about ready to drop Daniel and Jaune.

"Hey guys, let's do something to celebrate." Daniel suggested.

"EeertT, Sounds good." Jacket was actually excited by the thought.

"Whatever, as long as it involves food." Wolfe shrugged.

"Great, we'll meet up at your place at 5 this evening and I'll show you guys a cool place to hang out." Daniel as the airship was leveling itself to hover along the docks. The doors opened up for Jaune and Daniel to walk out.

"See you later." Wolfe waved as the doors closed. From there, Bile was going to head back to the airfield that is used by the public. Twitch was there already so he can discreetly provide transportation to Wolfe's house. He was already paid off by Jaune.

"Well, that was all completely new." Daniel said as he walked with his small bag and his weapons and supplies inside. The suit, armor, and other gear was with Wolfe and Jacket. So if someone were to sneak a peek at his belongings, it wouldn't be out of ordinary for Hunter stuff.

"Yeah." Jaune said as the two walked on the pathway. Several of the students there were all minding their own business. By the end of the it when the path separated, Daniel stopped.

"In case you guys need my help in the future, I'm just a call away." Daniel did a light smile.

"I'll remember that." Jaune said as he shook Daniel's hand. "I'll see you tonight."

"Cool." Daniel replied as he turned around to walk to his destination.

Jaune looked away from Daniel, and this time no one was in front of him to question his behavior. He smiled and walked along the path as he noticed that several of the students were staring at him. _Do they know about my activities?_ Jaune's thoughts started to race around in his head. He noticed why, because behind him a ways was team CFVY walked along the pathway as they returned from a mission. So the students weren't staring at him.

Jaune didn't look behind himself again because he would have looked at Velvet, then he would unconsciously react, and their leader Coco, would see that and boom. His cover would be blown. Jaune looked on ahead to see Blake sitting in the same tree that was at the far corner of the courtyard. Her eyes were fixated on another book.

Then it happened.

"What's up vomit boy." An obnoxious voiced called disguised as feminine came from Jaune's left to see the blonde member of RWBY… Yang. Who was surprisingly alone.

"Morning Yang." Jaune said in a low tone. He was a figure of success and now back to being called Vomit Boy. _Fuck that title_.

"What's up, I haven't seen you that much lately, what, being a hero or something?" Yang laughed at her own joke. _You have no idea_. Jaune wanted to snap back.

"Nah, I've just been hiding away from you. Everything else is confidential and above classified."

"Okay, well my team and I were going to head stay in tonight and play some board games, you wanna join in?" Yang asked without any ulterior motive.

"Can't, I got something planned with my friends." Jaune said as nicely as he could. He wanted to shout instead but that would be even worse. Plus, this is Yang, she gets power from anger. His comic book hero Bulk could learn a method or two from Yang.

"But Pyrrha and Nora are already joining us." Yang said without thinking.

"… My other friends." Jaune should have expected that kind of response.

"Really? Well are they imaginary or real?" Yang smiled with a thumbs up.

_Like I haven't heard those words before._ "Really real." Jaune felt the old feelings of what he was supposed to feel fester inside his stomach. The feeling was as old as Jaune was alive. The sense of feeling weak and meaningless. It was part of him, and how Yang saw him was no different. But then again, she was like this to everyone, so he couldn't take it to heart, but still, every word stings.

"Okay then Ren didn't want to join us and I think he's in the library." Yang finally changed the subject. She talked about having to see Blake because the dog was taken to sitter in another part of Beacon so she can finally return to the dorm.

"Can you believe it? Dr. Oobleck loves dogs, and for him to run across the school to get Zwei's doggy bowl for lunch was proof of that. So from here on in, Zwei and Oobleck will be the best of pals." Yang said with a great happiness.

_I can't stay mad at her for too long._ "Aren't you worried that Zwei would start to identify Oobleck as his new master?" Jaune pointed out. They were getting closer to entrance of the dormitory.

"No need to worry. Zwei will be anyone's dog and he loves everyone that can appreciate him. Plus, Oobleck made it clear that he wanted to be a caretaker, not a master. So what are you going to do now VB?" Yang asked.

"Go to my dorm and read my comics." Jaune said as he felt like grumbling something at the end. "Don't you have to speak to Blake?" He added.

"Oh crap, I almost forgot." Yang exclaimed. "See you later."

_Maybe it was a good thing that I stole your hairs…_ Jaune thought as he opened the door.

Jaune returned to the dorm to find that Pyrrha was off somewhere in the gym while Nora followed Ren around the school. Jaune sighed as he was able to get some uninterrupted sleep from that morning.

He walked to his bed and fell into its sweet loving embrace.

"I know we've been together for a long time. I know I can say it now without any kind of doubt." Jaune took a deep breath. "I love you." Jaune said to his pillow. He felt a wave of exhaustion sweep over him as he smiled.

"Shh, you don't have to speak... I know." He added before he fell asleep.

Five hours later

Jaune opened his eyes to see the bland ceiling. He looked around the room to see Pyrrha reading a book at her desk. Her hair was loose and it fell down along her head. She changed from her work out clothes into casual pajamas. She had black fleece pants with a grey V-neck shirt. It was a common sight to see Pyrrha so relaxed in the room, Jaune remembered how formal she was in the first week. They didn't know each other at all, since the initiation test in the forest. With time, she lightened up with Nora's help. Ren just talked without words like he usually does.

Jaune looked to his right to see at the clock. It was 3:19 in the afternoon. He better get ready to go out with the guys. _Ew, I better not say it out loud that way_.

He leaned up from his bed. Just by moving his head, he felt that his hair was in some sort of wild state. Bed hair was always fun to deal with everyday… it really wasn't.

"Hey Pyrrha." Jaune said with a yawn.

"Hey Jaune, took you a while." Pyrrha looked away from her book. "Something burdening you?" She joked as an observation to his need of sleep.

"Nah, just needed a good power nap." Jaune moved his legs to dangle over the bed. He rubbed his eyes and felt alert again. _Time to get ready._

"Yang told me that you're going out the friends tonight?"

_Damn you Yang_. "Yeah, Wolfe and I want to have Jack feel welcomed to Beacon by going out to eat or something."

"Sounds like fun." Pyrrha turned the next page for her book. "I just wanted to ask you if we could practice for the tournament later tonight."

"For sure." Jaune responded with genuine enthusiasm. It brought a smile to Pyrrha's face._ She must be excited to take first place again at the tournament, I can't let her down._ Jaune thought as he walked into the bathroom to take a shower. He got dressed in his usual attire of his hoodie and jeans. No one cared about how he looked, so why should he?

It was 4:23, he was about ready to go. He said his goodbyes to Pyrrha then made his way out of the building, passed the courtyard, and waited for the 4:31 airship to take him to into the city. The journey was brief as Jaune walked on the pathway to Wolfe's house to open the door. Jacket saw him coming and opened it by the time he walked up to it.

"VRT, Ready." He played on his recorder. Then from behind Jacket, Wolfe and Daniel appeared all dressed in casual clothing.

Jaune walked into the house to get to his bag and he took out 300 lien in case of something were to happen. Like Wolfe 'forgetting' to pay for his meal again. He walked out of the house. Jacket locked the door. When they were ready then the three of them looked at Daniel.

"Lead the way." Jaune said to Daniel as rest of them walked along the sidewalk.

**Yay, another chapter down. I think it was a good chapter, we saw the team blow some crap up, I still hate the Cloakers, we meet Hector in person, and who was that mysterious shadow woman? More of that to be learned in the future. Like always please review and have an excellent day.**

**Mighty Prussia:** The DMR Houston used was the one from the Halo games. No real reason for its existence, but I like it in the games. Thank you for reading.

**MajorDarkBlade:** The Beetle was a fight I had high hopes for. Thank you for liking it so much. We're getting closer to that point in the story. Have a lovely day.

**Iandude: **The beginning was fun for me as well. I like seeing the characters bicker over nothing as it makes the situation seem funnier than it really is. I liked doing the Tropical Heist, so I'll start to plan out more Original Heists for the future. And yeah, Monopoly, the board game. I can't have the characters stare all stoically at the walls for two hours. That crap would be boring. Thanks for reading.

**GoldVisor: **Good point. I said it in the heat of the moment. But still, a fun weapon to use if it didn't have to rely so much on headshots. Have a great day.

**RyderRosas: **I think I fixed the errors, thanks for reading.

**Guest from Chapter 2: **The first chapter marks the beginning, the story doesn't have their involvement. This whole ordeal is Jaune's secret because Cinder is blackmailing him. Thank you for reading and have an excellent day.


	20. Chapter 20, Club Errera

**The song for this chapter will be "**Jazz Parts**" from the Halo ODST soundtrack. Now on with the story.**

**Song Link: ** watch?v=okFLt9lGxlc

Daniel walked along the sidewalk as the crew was right behind him. The sun above began to descend for orange glow that was to come in two or so hours. The time was 5:22 pm.

"So Dan, what's this place like?" Jaune was the first to speak.

"It's a good place; it has great music too." Dan said as he did several light movements with his left arm. Wolfe jogged up to Daniel.

"I was wondering what has Nathan been doing, I haven't seen him at all, not that I want to; it's just a bit of curiosity I have." He spoke much calmer than he has in the past. They didn't know each other that long, but Wolfe knew enough to understand Daniel.

Daniel opened his mouth, but no words came out. It was pure hesitation, but he continued to smile for the group. That was enough for Wolfe to know something bothered him. It wasn't the time to talk about it either, Daniel wants to do something with a group of people, and Wolfe was gonna to give it to him.

Jacket looked to his left at Jaune. He raised his shoulders as he couldn't understand what happened in that odd moment. Jaune just shrugged his shoulder and the two decided that they would learn more about it later. Well if they could speak telepathically.

"So what are they doing?" A feminine voice asked as it came from a corner of the street.

"Like that I already told you five minutes ago, they're just walking and talking." A second voice pointed out.

"… Well, what are they talking about?" A third voice broke into the conversation.

"You know Ruby; I really do despise you at times." The second voice snapped.

"Well, this is much harder than it looks than it does on TV." Ruby moaned.

From the corner, the third voice's head peeked out from the corner. The owner of the voice was Weiss with her was Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, and Nora. So it was basically everyone besides Blake and Ren.

"I still think this is a bad idea." Pyrrha stated as she pulled Weiss away from the corner.

"Don't blame me, it was Nora's idea." Yang said as she pointed her thumb in Nora's direction as she had her bubbly smile plastered on her face.

Team RWBY's room, 41 minutes earlier

Ruby Rose split open a bag of chips by smashing it with her fists for the compressed air to making a loud POP sound as potato chips scattered in the air. Before she cleaned after herself, Ruby poured what didn't fall out of the bag and pour it into a plastic bowl for their guests.

"Ruby, you don't open a bag that way." Weiss nagged like usual.

"What, that's how Yang and I do that back home." Ruby shrugged as she tuned Weiss out as her lips flapped.

"Blah blah blah, proper, blah blah way blah do blah blah, things." Great, Weiss finished her mini lecture when Yang passed by. Weiss saw Yang do something differently and therefore wrong so she walked off to nag her as well.

Blake was on the other end of the room with a stack of board games to play. There were Bunkers and Badasses, Remnant Risk, X-Ray and Vav the Clue version, and The Amazing Adventures of Michael J. Caboose the Monster Hunter. The last one was a pen and paper game of the all legendary Caboose and his task to hunt down the most dangerous creatures to get glory and fame.

"So why are we playing these games again?" Blake looked at Ruby.

"Because Blake, now that Weiss finally knows how to read the cards and learned the rules to all the games, she won't be such a sourpuss this time. You've improved too, so that will make everything a thousand times more fun." Ruby jumped with a sparkle. Blake rolled her eyes as she walked to her bed.

Zwei was with Oobleck that night, so Blake felt comfortable to be her dorm again. Weiss on the other hand missed Zwei; he brought a lively energy to the room unlike Blake. But bonding with a people you have to see for the next four years was a necessity, well, in the words of their fearless leader Ruby.

From the main door, Nora kicked down the door and back flipped into the room. "Do not fret my friends, for I, Nora has arrived to make the world a better place." The Valkyrie turned around to see RWBY staring at her as Pyrrha walked into the room behind her.

"More like make it a living hell…" Yang grumbled. "And did you just break our door again?"

Pyrrha closed the door as the hinges of it were loose to the point of falling out of place and the door tumbled backward for it to fall into the hall. Pyrrha turned around to take hold of the door and she stood it back up but leaned it against the opening, so it tilted in place. The redhead turned around. "The door is just fine."

"Yeah." Nora said as she took one step forward. From the vibration of her foot, the door fell forward for Pyrrha to catch.

"Whatever." Blake said as she walked to the center of the room. All the boxes for the games were placed along the floor. Nora unwavering smile beamed around the room for them to get ready, but first, she had to raid the snack bar.

While Nora played Godzilla to the food, Pyrrha put the door back in place as she walked to the center of the room to sit down on the floor with Blake and Ruby. "So, what do you feel like playing first?" Ruby said in her usual snuffle tone.

"I'll leave it up to you; I haven't played board games in the past." Pyrrha admitted.

"Mmmfers mm bmmmasses." Nora spoke with her mouth full. Some cookie crumbs escaped her lips and rolled onto the floor. Weiss was about ready to snap at her, keeping a clean room is the basic necessity of life, and those who don't know that are idiots. Well that's what Weiss keeps telling herself.

"I think she said Bunkers and Badasses. If so, I call dibs on the Siren." Yang called out before she sat down to set up the board with the others.

"Nah, I want to play Caboose the Monster Hunter, more specifically, the scenario where he has to hunt down his evil twin brother Spencer." Ruby exclaimed while in a tug of war with Nora for total control over the cookies.

"We played that game last week on the 'Hunt for Texas' scenario. Let's do something else." Blake said in her usual emotionless tone.

"What do you think Nora?"

"Mmmfers mm bmmmasses" Nora repeated herself.

"Bunkers and Badasses it is then." Yang exclaimed as she took out the pieced from the box. Weiss got the Psycho character, Pyrrha the Commando, Blake with the Assassin, Yang with Siren, Nora with the Claptrap, and Ruby with the Mecromancer. All characters have unique abilities on rolls and the point is to make it to the end of the game with the most 'loot' and die the least out of all the players.

Blake had the first roll. Her character landed on a land mine space and died. She rolled her eyes as it'll be two turns before she can respawn. It was Pyrrha's turn next.

"I would've thought Jaune would have looked forward to play with us. He loves playing as the Enforcer." Ruby said as she rolled her turn.

"Nah, he'll just play and die off on all of his rolls." Weiss giggled at the thought of Jaune whining about it like always when he plays this game.

"Does Ren play this game?" Blake asked as she read an abilities card.

"He did for a time. He doesn't like them too much though and says they're too easy." Nora said. Ruby and her had a truce and split the amount of cookies at half. Ruby took the tastier cookies. Nora will never forget her foul play.

"These games are built around chance, how can he get _bored_ of it?" Yang overemphasized her terrible pun. Everyone face palmed or rolled their eyes. Ruby went 'Oh I get it' and chuckled at the pun. Yang smiled as the pun still made someone laugh.

"It's not the game itself, just the stuff that goes inside of it. He likes it if it was run more by strategy like chess instead of checkers." Nora said when she finally didn't stuff herself on food.

"Sounds boring." Weiss said as she rolled her turn. Her character could open a treasure chest. She pondered the thought accepting the treasure as the rest of them talked.

"What did Jaune say he was going to do again?" Ruby asked. She heard Yang say something earlier but tuned her out as Weiss complained about something mundane.

"He's going out with some friends for dinner and something about welcoming that new kid Jack Fishburn to Beacon." Yang said and Weiss finally decided to go for the chest. She drew the card. 'Boom time' was the card she drew, her character died a long and painful death, she'll have to wait 4 turns before respawning. The damn chest was a trap. Weiss threw up her arms and grumbled to herself.

"His name is Jack Alburn. I learned that from Ms. Goodwitch. She spoke to Port before she had to leave the classroom with his help on the matter his attendance." Blake answered. It was now Pyrrha's turn. She rolled and landed on a chest space. She went for it and got the prize of a gun called 'The Handsome Cannon.' From now on, Pyrrha can kill enemies twice her level and get twice the loot. Weiss complained about it and how that should have been her prize.

"This morning I saw him hang out with a student from Team S-SHDW." Blake pointed out. She was in the trees again and noticed Jaune before he talked to Yang.

"Who are they again?" Yang asked.

"Nathan Steele, Steven Hoxworth, Desmond Poiter, and John Wick. The kid that I saw this morning was I think was Daniel Steele, Nathan's younger brother." Blake said on Nora's turn. She rolled the dice and moved her piece.

"What does the extra 'S' stand for?" Nora asked.

"Sho, making the team name Sho-Shadow. The Sho part is an abbreviation for the term Shomastnan. I believe it means 'hopeful.' Thus making the team name fully called Hopeful Shadow. Ozpin loves to make puns." Blake smiled at the thought. "Daniel was the one to be the Sho because of the last name he shares with Nathan."

"Why haven't I heard of them?" Weiss said as her character could finally respond and rolled to move.

"Team S-SHDW is an upperclassmen team by one year. Plus, the name must have some value if Ice Queen doesn't know about them." Yang poked fun.

"Hey." Weiss said by reflex.

"Anyways, Sho-SHDW has been making some real headway in the missions they've been doing. They love doing search and destroy missions so that's why we haven't seen much of them. Plus if I remember correctly, that guy Tomas Wolfe used to be part of the team before Wick showed up." Yang dug into her memory. She likes to walk around the campus to scope out all the teams and that was how RWBY got to know CFVY.

"So what does Daniel have to do with this?" Pyrrha asked as she rolled on her turn. She landed on another chest space winning another great prize.

"Nothing really, just contributing to the conversation." Blake shrugged.

"So does that mean that Jaune has been hanging out with S-SHDW?" Nora asked as Blake rolled the dice to kill a monster. She rolled a double and did twice the damage to continue her progression.

"It could be, haven't you girls noticed ever since Jaune came back, we haven't seen much of him outside of class?" Yang pointed out.

"This is Jaune we're talking about, it's not like he's got much going for him in the first place." Weiss snickered as she arranged the card in her hand.

"He's on his way there." Pyrrha snapped at Weiss. There was a small sense of tension building in the room. It was Ruby who was the one to break it before it got worse.

"So Jaune's got some new friends. Wolfe was lonely, and so was Jack." It was Ruby's turn. She rolled and a giant Robot Mech threatened the entire board. Each character has to contribute to take it down. "Oh no."

"Jaune can have a social life." Pyrrha said on a whim.

"Yeah." Yang replied.

"What if he lied?" Nora said out of nowhere. During the game, it was time for the girls roll for a combined attack against the Mech. They would have to reach a certain limit before the Mech could attack.

"What do you mean?" Blake curiosity overtook her mind.

"What if Jaune lied about going to see friends and what he was actually doing is going out on a date." Nora turned to Pyrrha. "You told me that he was dressed in some rather nice casual clothes."

"Good, if that means he'll leave me alone." Weiss rolled for character.

"Do you really think he could be on a date?" Pyrrha pressed the matter as she looked at Nora.

"It could be, have you guys ever seen him actually hang out with someone that he isn't obligated to be with?" Nora said as she rolled. It was now time to count up all the numbers to see if they can destroy the mech. "He's always alone and nice to everyone, but no one ever really made an effort with him before."

"He's been hanging out with the transfer students a lot." Ruby thought out loud.

"Mhm, plus, I remember bumping into him back at the dorm with a girl. Not to mention a pretty one. She looked like that girl who carries around an umbrella all the time." Nora planted the seed of curiosity to the group.

"So you mean, he could be doing what you say he's doing." Pyrrha's mind ran rampant with irrational thoughts.

"The only way any of us could find out is if say… we follow him." Nora left the dramatic pause for the group to get silent.

As Nora talked, Yang started to tally up all the numbers and they were two points more than they needed to take out the mech. "Sorry gals, but we can't kill the mech and so ends the game." Yang quickly started to put the pieces away before any of them could object.

"How long ago did Jaune leave?" Ruby asked. She was curious on what could be Jaune's big secret that everyone was so fond of, so their excitement rubbed off on her.

"Let's see, about 28 minutes ago. The next airship to Vale won't be until twenty minutes from now." Pyrrha changed her expression back to calm to hide her ulterior motive. Nora noticed it ever since the dance, as a girl, she had to help out her teammate no matter the situation. It was all constructed to be done behind a smile. Her deadly smile.

"No need, I can just call my personal airship to take us." Weiss didn't really like doing this sort of thing, but if it meant doing something with a group, it was fine with her.

"Great." Pyrrha nodded.

The thought struck Yang. "Why didn't we use the airship before?"

"Because no one asked about it." Weiss shrugged as she dialed up her scroll.

"Come on everybody, Operation Spy on Jaune Arc is a go." Ruby laughed. As she stood up with a final cookie in hand, Nora snatched it out of her hand and ate before Ruby could retaliate.

The operation consisted of everyone that was involved except Blake. Yang was the one to ask why before all of them left the dorm.

"I don't know, people keep secrets for a reason, do you really think it's okay to do all of this to Jaune?" Blake said on whim. It was a way for them to back off, and say do the spying herself, because that's her department, it'll be easier to do alone. When the group gives up on the notion, she would wonder off in the halls with a Ninjas of Love book and no one would think the wiser.

"Okay then Blake, you can stay here and be our alibi if we get busted." Yang said before she closed the door.

.

.

.

Or maybe not.

So by the time the search party was ready, the freshly clean private airship sat docked at the airstrip prepped for takeoff. Nora was the first on to board and made a bunch of flying puns. They plotted their plan of attack, the ride to the first station would be 12 minutes so that leaves a 16 minute window of them able to catch onto his trail. Everyone synced their scrolls and by the time it landed, each of them split off into different directions.

After a good ten minutes, Ruby was the one to spot Jaune walking with a group of students she hasn't really met before. All of them had calm expressions and the youngest one was the only one that smiled. He looked like he was an in good mood to lead the group.

"This is Red Roach, I've spotted the target." Ruby whispered.

"Copy that Red Roach, Yellow Bee is on approach." Yang replied as she sprinted off into Ruby's direction. Following behind her was Nora, the two met up and converse the possibilities of Jaune's whereabouts.

"Are you closing in White Duck?" Nora asked on her phone.

"Why do I have to be a duck?" Weiss snapped.

"Quit quacking White Duck, you'll give away our position." Yang replied.

"What do you mean, I'm just two meters behind you." Weiss said as she could clearly see Yang and Nora crouched down behind a trash bin. In six meters away was Ruby who had her back to a tree that was wide enough for her to hide.

"Shh White Duck, we're on the move." Ruby said as she quickly zoomed across the street to a corner that overlooked the sidewalk Jaune and the people he was walking with were in view. Pyrrha and Nora just walked behind Ruby. The others caught up immediately afterward.

"We're too far away, we need to get closer." Weiss suggested.

"White Duck is right." Pyrrha joined in on the fun. She stuck her head out to see Jaune and his companions getting further away. The tall one with that never speaks raised his head and looked around the area. All the girls had their heads hide behind cover. The tall one looked away from the street and jogged to catch up to Jaune.

"Golden Goose, move up, Red Roach will be right behind you." Yang did a bunch of incoherent hand gestures. None the less Pyrrha and Ruby pretended to understand it and jogged out of their location.

"White Duck, Green Sloth, and I Yellow Bee will move in after you." Yang was having too much fun with the code names.

They kept a steady pace behind the group of Jaune 's companions or friends, they didn't have a label for them yet. Eventually they reached a nice secluded corner to watch from afar.

"So what are they doing?" Ruby asked.

Jaune looked at Daniel and noticed he was overly happy from when he last saw him this morning, he didn't know him that much, but Jaune could sense something was wrong. He couldn't act on it because he was worried he'd handle it wrong somehow.

Jacket looked up to see another Atlas airship fly by. From the beginning of the second Semester, Jaune and Wolfe noticed the surprising presence of Atlas military coming in from the north. The citizens' act like it's nothing, but something is going down in Ironwood's mind.

"Are we there yet?" Wolfe asked as he rubbed his forehead. There wasn't a need to, but Wolfe did so anyway so he wouldn't give away a bored expression.

"We're almost there guys." Daniel said for the fourth time.

Wolfe looked at Jacket. He shrugged at Wolfe. Apparently doing something fun requires energy. Jaune felt like how everything's been going, going somewhere would be a nice change of pace for him.

After three minutes of walking, they arrived. A place called 'Club Errera.' The name of the place was in blue neon letters and the entrance was a concrete staircase down into the ground into a red building. The kind of place that looked to be a clever design made 20 years ago when making underground hangouts was a thing. Jaune recalled his father saying something about how it was the thing kids back then liked to do.

Jaune, Wolfe and Jacket all stopped to get good look at the place. From the lighting the place had this calm vacant vibe. They didn't know what to expect as they followed Daniel down the staircase.

"Have you ever been here Yellow Bee?" Ruby asked when Jaune and his friends walked down the stairs.

"No I haven't Red Roach." Yang turned around. She looked at all of them and they stared at her. "There is no way we can sneak in there without being spotted, so who's willing to take one for the team? By the way, the rest who are taking the Operation will have the chance to claim sovereignty if said spy was caught."

"Well when you say it like that, then this whole operation was a waste of time." White Duck rolled her eyes.

"I'll do it." A voice said from above.

Each member of 'Operation Spy on Jaune' looked up to see Blake on above them on a narrow gap on the second floor of the building. Blake jumped down to land perfectly on her feet. She was wearing a black crop top long sleeve black shirt, with a grey undershirt with black denim pants. Her arms weren't wrapped in preparation of her weapons which was unusual.

"How long have you've been following us?" Golden Goose asked.

"Since you left the dorm and none of you noticed me until now." Blake walked past the group. "I think my résumé speaks for itself."

"Wait, I thought you didn't want to come along?" White Duck sounded smug.

"I didn't, I just said that to see if you girls would back off. People like to keep secrets for a reason." Blake said as she turned around and prepared to enter the Café.

**Play the song please.**

The place was vastly different than what Jaune expected. It was beautiful, the place was the size of a restaurant but with much more space between the tables, the waiters all had blue t-shirts and had casual pants. At the far end was a stage that looked like it could fit twenty people. The lighting of the place was that of a light blue hue mixed with dim blubs making certain areas stand out from the light. Like a movie theatre vibe you get from the respect people give on to be not that loud.

At the stage was an eight person band. There was a saxophone player, a pianist, a drummer, a bassist, a violinist and two more with instruments that Jaune didn't know the names to. He didn't feel like asking so he just wanted to enjoy the music.

"This place is new." Jaune smiled as he patted Daniel on the back. "I like it."

"How's the food?"

"Calm your tits fatass." Daniel retorted. Wolfe laughed at the response, Daniel never insulted someone in all the time Wolfe knew him. He realized how much of an ass he's been and knew he needed to lighten up. Daniel put a lot of thought into coming to this place.

A woman walked up to the group. She was a Deer Faunus from her slightly rounded nose and her deer ears sprouting from her hair. She looked to be in her late twenties. In the back, Jacket noticed a middle aged man as the chef to the place.

"Table of four?"

"Yes please." Daniel smiled. "And can we get four chĭl chin as our drinks."

"Of course Dan." The woman nodded. She walked away with a smile.

"I take it you're popular here?" Wolfe smiled and Jacket did a light elbow jab to Daniel.

"Kinda, Carla talks that way to everybody. Come on, let's go to the middle, that's the best place be seated." Daniel walked in front of the group. All of them didn't say anything and did what Daniel wanted to do.

From the entrance, Blake walked in and quickly took a seat. Clara noticed her from the Cashier's desk. She would go to Blake when she was done with getting the ticket ready for another customer.

Jaune sat down at a square table. Each member had to sit in parallel to each other on all four ends of the table.

Daniel looked around at the band. He smiled at the sight of it. Each member had a dim light set for them. They couldn't see in the crowd but every one of them was happy.

"Are there going to be any special bands tonight?" Wolfe asked as he looked at the band.

"Nah, this place runs by walk in. If you can play a tune of jazz or any kind of music for that matter. You can have the stage to yourself. But you can however reserve a time slot on a certain day. The owner is cool that way." Daniel looked at Jacket when he finished talking. Clara walked to the group with four plastic cups for them.

Jacket looked at his drink. It looked like some sort of yogurt, but it wasn't yogurt. It looked like water with a paste inside of it. It was of an orange color, with several green leaves inside it. It swirled around and sat in the cup. Jaune stared at his and so did Wolfe. Daniel took swung his drink to his lips and took a hefty gulp of it.

"Come on guys, try it." Daniel pressured them. His smile was that of a person who really had their heart into the place. Like, it was a moment of pure happiness. Without a word to each other, the three of them took a sip of their drinks.

Jacket was the first one to do so. The drink rolled onto the tongue and the pasty water swirled through his teeth. From there, a wave to flavor rushed his taste buds. It had a pure taste of berries with a kick of sweetness. By the end of the first sip, Jacket had to take more to get a complete taste of the clĭl chin.

Jaune and Wolfe had the same experience.

"What is this?" Wolfe asked as he licked the drink from his lips. It was completely new to him so he couldn't have a verdict on how he thought of it.

"Roxas berries." Daniel replied.

"Come again?" Jaune asked.

"Roxas BERRIES. It comes from a tribe down south at the edge of the continent. They take Roxas Berries and harvest them in the winter, because that's the season they grow in the mountains. Strange I know but that's what happens. So what the tribe does is harvest as much as they can and store them. When they want something to drink, they grind the berries into paste, put it into a container of some kind, and boil it with water at half the height of the paste so it won't become too watery. When the paste begins to expand, the tribe adds whatever they want to the drink. Sugar, spices, anything. We got Chĭl chin. This place gets them for a cheap price because the tribe has an abundance of them. We have the basic form with a hint of sugar." Daniel didn't drop a word as he talked. It was all clear and proud.

"Wow, I never knew that." Jaune was pleasantly surprised.

"See what I mean?" Daniel laughed at the end. From there each member took out a menu of various dishes that none of them have ever seen before.

Jacket looked at his menu and started to wonder what all the food must be like. The sandwich bowl looks like a good meal to have. Jacket set his menu down on the table and pointed at the meal. It was only 7.59 lien to buy as well.

"Oh good choice." Daniel nodded. As Jaune and Wolfe placed their order. Blake moved up several seats as the light provided cover for her. Clara was confused by the motion. She finally approached Blake.

"Can I take your order?" She asked. Clearly being invasive.

"Oh, I'd like a chĭl chin with wind bead served with turkey." Blake knew her stuff when it comes to places like these. In fact she loved them without all the people that try to talk to her.

"Okay." Clara wrote down in her notepad. From her location Blake could hear every word from Jaune's table. Her hair was tied upward so it hides her bow and was braided firmly. So from a glance, no one would recognize her. Blake tuned her ears for what they're about to talk about.

"So guys, what do you think of the place?" Daniel asked.

"I love it." Jaune smiled.

"I need to try the food." Wolfe gave his honest thought.

Jacket looked at his menu and eagerly tapped on another chĭl chin that could be blended with brown sugar. It was an experience on its own and he must have it.

"Calm down Jack, we get it, you like the place." Daniel sighed as the light of his smiles faded away. The band looked like they were approaching to their close.

"So Daniel, tell us something about yourself. We did just meet today and you're already taking me out for dinner." Jaune joked.

Daniel chuckled at the joke. "Well, I'm from Haven. Part of a small community on the outskirts of town. I love jazz but I don't want to play an instrument. I just turned sixteen last month and I almost wasn't allowed in Beacon but Ozpin let me in even though I wasn't at the age limit. Right now, I'm just doing my best to get through my classes. I got basic training around Applewood. A community that's about 30 kilometers south of Haven. I trained there and would see my brother every other year."

"Who is your brother?" Jaune asked. Little did he know he pressed a hot button topic.

"Nathan, he's older than me by about two years. He grew up in Mistral with his father. The thing is, we're half-brothers. Same mother, different fathers. She did what she could for me and Nathan to get to know each other but something always came up." Daniel started to get quiet at the end.

"Hey guys have you seen the band?" Wolfe jumped into the conversation. Jacket looked at the stage to see no one.

"Here you go ma'am." Clara said to Blake as she was given her meal. She nodded to Clara and did her best to hear what was about to be said next.

Before Daniel could talk further Clara appeared again with plates in hand. She passed Jacket his sandwich plate, Jaune wanted to try out the wheatgrass cup with a ham and chess sandwich, while Wolfe got a seasoned steak. Daniel got what he always liked, and it was a beef stew with fried bread. Sure it was a fatty meal, but he never went overboard on his daily diet.

Wolfe had his knife in hand and started to carve up his meal.

Jaune took a bite of his sandwich.

And Jacket chugged down his chĭl chin.

They all thought the same thing with their food. Wow.

Daniel looked down as he eyes weren't in view of the crew anymore.

**The song should end here**

"You guys don't have to pretend anymore, I know you all hate it here." Daniel said in a soft tone.

Each member looked away from their food and stared at Daniel.

"I know that you guys didn't feel like coming here. I thought… I just… I thought that having people here with me could help me feel better… I should have known better." Jacket looked at Wolfe and the two were completely confused about what was transpiring.

Jaune looked around the place to only see a woman with well-kept hair eating her meal and the waitress standing at the entrance reading a book. No one else was in the place. Jaune lowered his head for Daniel to speak.

"I know that people hate what I like to do for fun… I guess I'm weird that way." Daniel said with a sniffle at the end. He finally looked up. His eyes were holding back years of anguish in what willpower he had left. It wasn't much to begin with.

"Dan, what did Nathan do." Wolfe said in a serious tone. Jacket had his hands on the table with him listening intently to what Daniel had to say. Jaune couldn't bring himself to take a bite of food.

"Well… I, I… I'm no longer part of team Shadow. Nathan… doesn't want me part of the group anymore." Daniel finally spoke the words that burdened his mind. "I was told that… my existence was a mistake on the behalf of my mother… I wasn't the plan and I ruined the relationship what my mother had with his father."

"Wha?" Jaune said in a low tone.

"The reason why I was brought here in the first place was to fill in for Steven Hoxworth , Nathan's best friend. Steven couldn't be at school earlier this year so Nathan wanted me to fill in for him until he arrived." Daniel's voice cracked several times.

Wolfe was about to say something but, Daniel wanted to speak.

"Steven convinced Nathan that I should leave the group and that I'm bringing them down to a level of mediocrity. Like what happened to you Wolfe." Daniel looked at his partner. His eyes welled up.

"I should have fought for your place on the team, but I didn't… I'm sorry about that… I should have fought for you." Daniel looked down at the table. "I thought... here was the chance to finally kindle a flame with my brother. I was selfish..."

The three of them had to listen to what Daniel had to say.

Blake couldn't believe that something like this was happening. She wanted to stand up but doing so could risk her being exposed. _Wait for the right moment Blake_. She thought.

"I tried talking to Nathan today. He didn't like what I said about you being back in the team… I tried again, and Steven, he did his usual spiel. I finally snapped back at him."

Wolfe's expression turned sour.

"Nothing happened. I just wanted to get my thoughts across." Daniel did a light shrug.

Jaune's mind was completely focused at that moment.

"Nathan said… he said…" Daniel chocked up on his words. "He said he _hated_ me." That was Daniel's breaking point. His eyes seeped all the buried pain that burned from his soul. It was something that kept building up from his entire life. Daniel lowered his head as he continued to cry.

Jaune was about to stand up until Wolfe stopped him. They stared at each other as Daniel continued his words.

"SHDW went on a mission today… Nathan and Steven want all my stuff gone by the time they get back." Daniel tried to clear his throat. "I just thought, before I go home, I should at least try to do something with other people." Daniel did a light smile. It was the kind of smile where you want others to think that you're okay. But both parties know that nothing is alright, far from being alright.

"I barely met you guys today and here I am throwing all my problems at you." Daniel said with several tears running down his cheeks. That was his queue, Wolfe stood up and walked to Daniel was sitting at. Daniel looked up as Wolfe took a knee.

Without any words, Wolfe gave Daniel a hug. Something that any person could need. It was something that could give hope to the person receiving it. Wolfe wasn't insecure about it by doing that stupid 'bro tap.' By patting the back to make the gesture seem less homoerotic. That kind of thinking was bullshit and Wolfe didn't care about it.

"You're not at fault here." Wolfe whispered to Daniel. That was what Daniel needed to hear, as he let himself go, and buried his face into Wolfe's shoulder. He let out the tears he needed. Wolfe rubbed Daniel's back.

"A person like you shouldn't feel this way." Wolfe said as Daniel's tears started to fade as after several seconds.

"You did what you thought was best, and that is all I could have hoped for." Wolfe finished his words on the matter. After he said that, he pulled away from Daniel's head.

"I'm sorry I did this to all of you." Daniel wiped his cheeks.

"Don't be." Jaune said immediately. "This was a long time coming." Jaune said to hopefully lighten the mood. Unfortunately for him, it didn't worked.

"I'll be leaving Beacon tomorrow morning, thanks for coming here with me." Daniel took a napkin and blew his nose.

"No you're not." Jaune said to that statement. "Do you want to be a Huntsman?"

Daniel looked up when he finished cleaning his nose. He nodded to that statement.

"Then fight for it. You wouldn't have come here if you doubted yourself. You don't need the approval of obligation to be at Beacon. You're here now, you work hard, and you'll accomplish what you want. If you don't want to believe in yourself, then don't. You should believe in me, because I'll believe in you." Jaune felt like he was speaking to himself more than Daniel. "I'm sure Wolfe feels that way."

"I'd bet my life on it." A determined Wolfe clenched a fist.

"You helped us today and we were strangers to you this morning. But yet, you helped us with a smile, and because of that, I'll definitely help you." Jaune continued his speech.

Jacket turned to Daniel and he nodded with serious expression.

"I barely met these assholes weeks ago, Jack here even less. But from what you've guys have done to help me, I'd trust any one of you with my life."

"If SHDW doesn't want you, then fuck them." Wolfe added. "In fact, I'm not even going to allow you to quit Beacon… You know what, as a matter of fact, you're going to crash at my place. I have a second spare bedroom you can use while going to school." Wolfe leaned back as Jaune and Jacket nodded at him.

"You probably got to do school alone, but know this, you got a team right here to support you." Jaune smiled. "I'll be glad to help you on your time at Beacon."

Daniel was taken completely aback by all of this overwhelming support. He looked down. He never felt so welcomed by people outside of his home town and mother. He smiled and looked up and laughed a hearty laugh.

"Alright then, if you'll guys will help me, I'll stay and keep attending Beacon."

"THAT's the spirit!" Wolfe said with happy shout.

"Yeah! Did your team celebrate you're birthday? You know what, doesn't matter, because we're doing it right now." Jaune smiled as he looked around to see Clara at her cashier's desk wiping away a tear from her eye. During the commotion, Clara secretly locked the door and marked it as closed because having people see this in public, it wasn't their business, and this was the first time Daniel visited the place with friends as well.

Jaune looked over his shoulder to the woman that sat close to them, for some reason, she wasn't there, it must have happened during the commotion. _I hope we didn't ruin her night_. Jaune turned to his friends as Daniel started to smile again.

Outside, Blake Belladonna saw the potential Jaune possesses and how he treats everyone the same with unquestionable support. She didn't know how else to describe it as she walked out of the building.

"So how'd it go?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah, what happened?" Ruby pressed on.

"Nothing." Blake noticed a lack of people. "Where did everyone else go?"

"Weiss, Yang and Nora all lost interest five minutes after you walked into the place."

"Okay." Blake looked to the ground as she walked past them.

"What's going on in there? The place looked like it closed down for the night." Ruby pointed out.

"There's no hidden girlfriend, just Jaune having fun with his _friends_. Just leave this be." Blake said as she gave a slight smile as she took a step forward.

"Oh, maybe I should go and-" Pyrrha took a step forward, before she could go further, Blake placed her hand on Pyrrha's shoulder.

"Just leave this be, for now okay?" Blake didn't want to explain what happened. The reason for it was because of her personal honor of being able to keep secrets on the behalf of others. Pyrrha took a moment and nodded. From there, Ruby, Pyrrha, and Blake returned to Beacon using public transportation.

Inside, Jaune laughed with Wolfe about seeing Jacket do a trick of stabbing himself with a fork in the eye while covering his face with his hand only to show that he used ketchup for the trick. Daniel couldn't stop laughing at the trick as well.

From there, each of them except Jacket told stories of their pasts of funny events. Jaune talked about the time he was nearly shot by a firework cannon when a dog knocked over the mortar cannon. It fired and Jaune danced around in circles thinking he was on fire which he wasn't. Wolfe talked about the time when he met a goose and called it a swan no matter how many times it bit him; he even carried it home thinking the bites were kisses from the swan. Daniel talked about a time of how he confused playing tag with a goat when it was ramming him from its instinct to do so. He came home all dirty and covered in bruises.

Every story was met with the same thing. The four of them smiling and laughing about their lives. Clara when they weren't looking, bought a cake from a dollar store down the street. The chef of the place watched as the boys talked about themselves.

The chef was the owner of the Jazz café, and he never seen people actually laugh at his business. Sure there were chuckles from the other patrons, but here, he got to see an image of something that doesn't happen often in his business. He told his daughter Clara to get the birthday boy a cake.

Since the school year started. Daniel visited this place, always paid a fair amount and respected the chef and his daughter. So from all that, the chef named Charlie thought he could pull this one favor for Daniel. The kid who always said 'Thank you, you're welcome, and goodbye' every time he'd come to eat and enjoy the music.

Clara arrived back with small cake in hand. Sure it looked like it was only enough for eight slices but it was enough to bring the life back into their number one customer with friends.

Jaune reached into his pocket to pay for the meals and cake.

"No need kid, just enjoy the moment." Charlie waved off the gesture.

"Thank you." Jaune smiled. Clara had a beaming smile as she placed the container in front of the boys. All of them smiled and sang a song for Daniel telling a happy belated birthday. Daniel nodded before he blew out the single candle that sat in the middle. Without much words, everyone made sure to finish the cake in one go. Jacket had the job of finishing the frosting that remained on the container.

When all of them started to calm down. They looked up to see Clara with a camera. All the boys aligned themselves on the table with Jacket on the left, Jaune on the right, Wolfe in center left, and Daniel on the center right. Each of them stuffed with food and smiled with content expressions. Then the Flash came to capture the moment.

The instant the camera spewed out the image, it made five copies of itself as it reprinted the image. Every one of them got a copy. The four of them calmed down as all of them enjoyed the past couple of hours. Before leaving, Jaune learned from Clara that they closed the café down for Daniel's little therapy session.

"Seriously, thank you." Jaune said as he was at a loss of words.

"Don't mention it kid, just make sure Dan makes it to graduation and we're square." Charlie smiled.

"Will do." Jaune said as he turned around to leave the Errera Café. Just before leaving, when Clara and Charlie weren't watching, Jaune took out all the money he had and left it into the tip jar before he left. It was a total of 342 lien, which wasn't enough in his mind. _But it'll have to do for now_. Jaune thought as he, Jacket, Wolfe and Daniel all walked back home. More specifically Wolfe's home.

**Wow, a bit of an emotional chapter. It was something I wanted to do for a long time. For all of these characters. I haven't really done anything with real bonding between the Payday Gang and this was the product of my insecurity. Thank you so much for reading and please review.**

**Iandude:** The dynamic of the crew always intrigued me in the Payday game, which has me that the characters would interact more with each other. We're beginning to see the changes in Jaune's personality. That was cruel on Yang's part. We won't know more about the Shadow woman until later on.

**MajorDarkBlade:** Thank you for liking the personality and reading. Have a great day.

**IveUsed6Aliase:** Well that's good to know. The story of Jaune Arc will be a long on in this Fan Fic. Thank you for reading.

**MightyPrussia:** Yep, we'll see Vlad eventually. Thanks for reading.

**Lukefang:** Thank you.


	21. Chapter 21, Team Forming

**The artist oobidoobi created a cover art for my fan fiction by request. I completely love it and I hope you like it as well. The artist was asked by a reader and requested a cover art on my behalf. Thank you both so so much. I love it.**

The journey back to Wolfe's house was a prolonged one, because of how Daniel had the chance to dry his tears as the rest of the group took the time to comfort him. Along the walk, Jacket did a series of gestures to express that he was there for Daniel.

"Thanks Jacket." Daniel did a light smile while the crew turn left on the sidewalk as Wolfe's house was in view. The front lawn was still messy and so the team couldn't do much about it. Well that's what Wolfe kept telling them, he just didn't want to admit he didn't care about how other people view his home.

Jacket walked to the front door and took out a small key ring from his pocket. It had only one key on it but it was a start for him. He opened the door and held it for Daniel and Wolfe. When they walked by, Jacket turned his head to Jaune with his usual blank expression.

"Thanks Jacket, but I got to head back to my dorm. Tell the guys I said 'good night.'" Jaune knew the end of his sentence was ironic. Jacket rolled his eyes as he entered the house.

Jaune returned to Beacon without any form of trouble, he walked along the sidewalk of the main courtyard. Either Blake was in hiding or she was finally able to be in her dorm for a change since Zwei showed up. Blake never mentioned if she hated Zwei, but she didn't mention if she loved him either.

Every step he made had the sound of rhythm of his shoes on the concrete, not that it really mattered, but Jaune always liked that sound a shoe or boot made. There wasn't a reason for it but it was still something pointless he enjoyed. He walked to the front door, no Cinder there with no wise cracks about his life, no CRDL there to hassle him. All Jaune felt was a nice captured image that sat in his hoodie's front chest pocket.

Jaune walked to his dorm room door and took out his key ring, it jingled as he flipped through the three keys, one for his locker, one for his home, and one for the dorm. That was all that he really had. Behind him, Jaune heard a door open and it was right behind him.

"How'd it go with the imaginary friends?" Yang said as she leaned against the opening of her room.

_That it!_ "They aren't imagery, they aren't figments of my imagination, and they're real people. I will not allow you the chance to call them that again." Jaune said he stood tall and looked at Yang in the eye.

"Whoa, Vomit Boy, where did this come from?"

_She just… just… keeps… pushing it._ "Yang, please stop calling me that, I really don't appreciate it and can you please just drop the nickname?"

Yang's expression went from playful to analytical. Jaune never took the time to talk back to anyone, the only person he does that to is Ruby whenever they talk about something nerdy, like Ruby's love for weapons, Ruby's love for cookies, and Ruby's love for everything.

"Alright Jaune." Yang made a half-hearted laugh, the kind of someone knowing full well what the request was but in the end don't really care.

_Don't let this ruin your night Jaune. Just enter the dorm and go to sleep._ Jaune thought before he turned around. It didn't look like Ruby and Blake were at their dorm, strange. The door opened and Nora was on her bed with her limbs in various directions and her pillow had a small puddle of drool. Nora didn't care about how people felt about it; she just cared if she got some sleep. Ren was at his desk with a paper that was due in two weeks. It was a report on the Freedom War and the Faunus rebellion of various regions of Remnant. Ren had to make a paper about the how the Faunus contributed to end the conflict.

"So how'd it go with your friends?" Ren looked up from his desk; he needed the mental break from working on it for the past 4 hours.

"Fine just fine." Jaune was a little exhausted in from being caught up in the moment back at Club Errera. _I'll probably take a date there sometime if that ever happens_.

Ren knew he hit a wall so he let it be and turned back at his work to finish before going to sleep. Jaune sat on his bed and started to untie his shoes then notices Pyrrha wasn't in the room.

"Where's Pyrrha?" Jaune asked when his feet were free to breath.

"She went to something about seeing some sort of weapons shop. Ruby wanted to look over the new designs for Hunters." Ren lied; he had no idea where they were but was well aware of their intentions from earlier. Nora told Ren all about it but didn't have a chance to say otherwise against the matter because Nora was well, Nora.

"Oh, that's cool. Night Ren." Jaune said as he took off his hoodie with a blue t-shirt and that was all Jaune needed after he switched into his onesie. He lay on his back and stared at the ceiling until he opened them up again with a blue hue from the morning glow.

The room was quiet as Pyrrha's bed was neatly folded and organized, so she's probably already out on her morning exercises. He yawned and fanned his mouth and looked at his scroll. Three messages. It read two from Wolfe, and one from Bain.

Wolfe messages were.

Hey man, here's the number to Daniel's scroll, we've got him situated with the place but we'll need help in moving his belongings in a couple of days.-W

Oh yeah, here's Dan's scroll number-W. After the message was linked with a highlighted list of numbers and Jaune made a mental note to save the number later.

Jaune's drowsy half-awake eyes looked at the message from Bain.

Hey there Jaune; thanks for the reference.-B. The message ended.

Jaune closed his scroll as he leaned out of his bed and noticed that Ren was awake and stared at the ceiling. This was usually the time when Nora would spontaneously wake up and rave on about another weird dream she had. Low and behold, "Ren, you wouldn't believe the craziest dream I've had." Nora squawked as soon as her eyes opened.

The morning went generally the same as Jaune sat down in his usual seat in for Port's class, and what happened surprised him, No Cinder walked through the door as Port began his lecture of Grimm research in recent years.

It generally went like this. 'We know that the Grimm like killing people, and we still don't know the exact reason why.' Jaune paid attention as the class went on, and from above, Ruby minded her own business. She looked like she was doodling something on her scrap paper. She noticed Jaune looked at her and she took hold of her paper, it was a cartoony image of Ruby, Yang, and Nora all fighting a giant sloth. She beamed a smile on her face as Jaune chuckled at her. From there, Jaune looked to his right to see Pyrrha writing notes in her notebook.

Then Headmistress Goodwitch entered the classroom, which was odd, normally she doesn't show up until after Dr. Oobleck's lecture.

"Jaune Arc?" She called.

"Present." Jaune replied as he stood up from his seat.

"Ah good. Headmaster Ozpin would like to have a word with you." The Headmistress said and stared at Jaune as he walked up to her. Half the class stared at him as well as Ruby and Pyrrha. None of them expected Jaune could have been in trouble.

"Um, what does he want to talk about?" Jaune spoke in a low tone to avoid the class from hearing.

"That is between you and Ozpin, please hurry; we don't want you to miss out on Mr. Oobleck's class." The Headmistress said in her uncaring tone. Behind Jaune stood Oobleck as he grimaced from the statement.

"That's Dr. Oobleck to you." He muttered as he sped off to talk a thousand words a minute when he appeared in the classroom.

With every step, all the noise tuned out from around Jaune. All the classrooms with talking instructors and all the thoughts in his mind. All he heard was Ms. Goodwitch's and his footsteps. It didn't take long before Jaune stood in the elevator to be lifted up into Ozpin's tower. The doors opened as in the same large room, stood Daniel, Wolfe, and Jack.

Each of them stood side by side didn't speak a word to Jaune. Not any kind of horror film could recreate this mounting tension.

_Am I being kicked out again? It's probably because of the time I beat up CRDL._ Jaune's mind raced with different answers for himself.

Ozpin looked as if he was stuck organizing papers on his desk. It must be stuff related to the Vytal Festival.

"Good morning Mr. Arc." Ozpin finally spoke.

"Yes Headmaster?" Jaune replied weakly, scared of what could happen at any moment.

"You're frightened? May I ask why you feel that way?"

"I'm called here to the tower; I think I did something wrong and did something I'm not supposed to do." Jaune stammered.

"How can being a leader be considered wrong?"

"I don't know, because the only people who has faith in me is my team and mother." Jaune knocked himself down.

"But your team does have faith in you. That's why you're here."

"But I thought Pyrrha, Ren and Nora are back at class." Jaune looked around the room to see the Headmistress staring off into her clipboard.

"I'm not talking about NPR." Ozpin loved playing his mind games.

"Come again?" Jaune replied dumbfounded.

"I'm talking about the gentlemen behind you." Ozpin nodded before he took a sip of his coffee mug.

Jaune looked over his shoulder to see the rest of the guys with calm expressions,

"I'm sorry, but I still don't understand." Jaune shrugged.

"It seems that your leadership qualities are much larger than you realize Jaune. They are here because I called them here. I was informed by a little bird that you've been to their aid as of late, with all three of these boys with various issues. Two are dealing with team issues, and the other is completely new student and all of them have the same underlying issue." Jaune heard as he looked back at Ozpin. "They need a team and they found one because of you, Jaune. You rallied these boys together."

"I did it because they needed the help."

"There's your answer Jaune. You still help others without concern over the possible consequences." Ozpin stood up from his chair and proceeded to walk around his desk. "With the information given by the little bird and the situations with the boys, I'm appointing you Jaune, as their new team leader here at Beacon."

Jaune blinked his eyes in surprise.

"I already spoke to each of them on their own over the course of this morning. Each of them agreed on the same thing, you as their leader."

"But I, huh?"

"Being a leader of two teams at Beacon won't be an easy task mind you. It takes the double the efforts you've given to complete the courses here that REQUIRES a team to complete, by say missions and team testing. Shall you decline, I shall find a replacement for you immediately and everything will return to the way it was. The decision is yours."

Jaune looked over his shoulder again. There at the line of boys, all of them had the same approving look on faces. They set their trust, happiness, and respect in Jaune's direction. Upon seeing that, Jaune made his choice.

"I'll do it." Jaune said before his brain registered his actual thought of 'no.' It was a quick one that he cursed himself for, but he disregarded it when Ozpin spoke up again.

"Jaune Arc, Jack Alburn, Tomas Wolfe, and Daniel Steele, step forward." Ozpin ordered, everyone walked up to the same location beside Jaune.

"Under the circumstances of everyday life, each of you has crossed paths in the most unusual of methods. It matters not how if came to this but rather accepting that you have a team standing beside you here at Beacon. Do your parts in making sure each of you succeed at becoming Hunters. From today forward, all of you will be known as Team JAWS."

"Um, sir, none of us are related to sharks in no way." Daniel pointed out.

"Neither is Team CRDL as none of them are humanoid birds." Ozpin shot back.

"True." Wolfe responded.

"Well then JAWS, this was all I wanted to speak about, good day."

As Ozpin finished his speech an turned around to complete his paperwork as it was literally began to pile up as he had the mind numbing task of making sure the festival will go as planned. The rest of AWS turned around to walk to the elevator. Jaune turned around to see the Headmistress walking up to him.

"This is a basic outline of what you'll have to know about being a leader for two teams Jaune. So no pressure in messing this up." The Headmistress giggled at her own joke as Jaune took the papers.

He looked at the elevator and walked inside. The doors closed with his team finally able to speak again.

"So how does it feel to be the boss, boss?" Wolfe snickered. Before more words were spoken, Jaune clenched a fist and punched Wolfe in the shoulder. "Hey, what was that for?"

"Why did this have to happen?" Jaune said with a confused look in his eyes.

"Relax would ya?" Wolfe rubbed his shoulder. "In case you were wondering, none of us spoke to Ozpin until he called for us."

Jaune looked at Daniel. "Don't look at me, all of us got here five minutes late this morning." Daniel raised his hands.

Before Jaune could turn around Jacket had his pockets pulled out that he didn't have his tape recorder.

"If it wasn't you guys, then who was it?" Jaune asked.

"No idea boss." Wolfe shrugged. "Is it really a bad thing? I mean, you already leading us on out in Remnant."

"I'm sorry. I'm just reeling in from the reality." Jaune rubbed his forehead.

"It's okay boss, we believe in you." Daniel smiled.

Jacket patted Jaune's back.

"I don't know what's worse, someone spying on us or the fact I have to lead you assholes." Jaune chuckled at the end of his sentence. When he did, Wolfe and Daniel joined in. _I guess I'm stuck with them now._ Jaune concluded as the elevator doors opened.

"Whelp too bad, boss, you're our leader now so you better act like it." Wolfe wrapped his arm around Jaune's neck and pulled backward for his to choke from the grip. Daniel and Jacket chuckled at the sight. From his desk, Ozpin watched from his terminal of the security camera placed into the elevator as the doors closed. It was that so he could see the same students before they would come to see him. From there he could get a read on people. The headmistress didn't say anything about it because it wasn't affecting anyone.

The doors two the elevator opened up as each of them walked out. There was a sticky note on Jaune's paperwork he would have to look over. I read. 'Now that you're done, each of you return to class.' Jaune told his new team of their orders as an official team of Beacon.

"Sir yes Sir!" Wolfe said in a grizzled tone like the stereotypical veteran. It just annoyed the team that time and the rest ignored it.

"I guess we'll meet at lunch?" Daniel suggested. Each of them had the same lunch time, Daniel, and Wolfe always ate at different parts of the school. Jack just followed Jaune around because it's not like he has anyone to be silent to.

"Yeah let's do that." Jaune shrugged. He didn't feel emotionally ready to accept more responsibility he could handle. Sure he said yes, but that was in the moment. _I'm passed the point of new return_. Jaune inhaled a puff of air in his nose and exhaled his worry.

"JAWS, we will meet for lunch today, I'll be in the center of the cafeteria." Jaune made sure to sound sure of himself. His mind was now consumed of the thought on who could have the one who informed Ozpin of his new team. Sure he was alone with them several times before, but it didn't seem like no one was really invested in what Jaune did in his social life.

_I need to keep an eye out._ He turned to his team, Wolfe and Daniel were already down the halls talking about the perfect donut to have. The kind with sprinkles outside or inside the donut. Daniel preferred inside while Wolfe liked the sprinkles outside. So debated the ethics in good donut making.

"Well see you after class Jack." Jaune said as the two split up in the hallway. Jack nodded to Jaune.

"Well you see children, there are many methods the settlements have tried to keep all forms of Grimm at bay. Even today, it is all still basically the same with the thought of castle defenses. Rather than a king, there are governments, and the walls are still a necessity for any kingdom." Dr. Oobleck pined as he circled around the room to give every direction the same amount of treatment for his voice. The door opened up as he ignored Jaune walking in since he was trying to be as quiet as he could be. Dr. Oobleck respected Jaune for the effort and downplayed the interruption by calling on Pyrrha.

"Ms. Nikos, can you tell me which kingdom was the one that formulated the barrier system first?" Dr. Oobleck asked as the light reflected off his glasses which had him appear emotionless to the students.

"Mistral, the idea was thought up by the Faunus intuition of using artificial barriers than natural ones." Pyrrha answered.

"Correct Ms. Nikos, I know that must have been trivial on your part but is something for all of us to understand." Dr. Oobleck sped across the opposite side of the room.

A student by the name of Mya had a hand on the desk as Oobleck leaned in for her to clearly see his face. "I expect you know all of this well miss Pinewood. If you wish to be an artist I recommend that you focus your matters on such, but you are here, and I will talk about you becoming a huntress, do you understand?"

"Yes Doctor." Mya looked down back at her textbook.

"Very well, let us continue." Dr. Oobleck continued his lecture as Jaune returned to his usual seat. Only one of the students in the classroom understood why Jaune had to leave earlier, and she wasn't obvious about by staring unlike Pyrrha and Ruby.

Dr. Oobleck talked until the bell chimed signaling his time was over.

"Ah there is the bell students, I expect each of you do your homework and have it prepared for me by next week. Shall you be on a mission longer than expected, I will know about it and plan accordingly. Good day." Dr. Oobleck stood tall and with a blink of an eye, and a trail of wind, he was out the room and off to lecture another classroom.

One speedster was gone yet another appeared in front of Jaune's desk.

"What happened? What happened?" Ruby left no time before Jaune could explain himself.

"I uh-" Jaune said as he had trouble finding the words. Behind Ruby, the amazon Pyrrha appeared from her shoulder. She was just as curious.

"You see." Jaune stammered. _Why is this so hard to explain?_

"Uh girls, the thing is that I'm the leader of another team besides NPR." Jaune admitted. From that Pyrrha and Ruby looked at one another, Ruby had a small giggle and Pyrrha was completely silent.

"Yeah, that's the thing. I'll explain at lunch, okay." Jaune noticed that several other students overheard him and fewer stared at him. Being the center of attention was something he was only used to if it was just his family, with people that could judge him about anything, his mind caved in from the pressure.

Ruby let the thought drift in her mind as she walked to her seat and the same happened to Pyrrha. She walked by. "What have I been doing wrong?" She uttered to herself, and luckily for her, no one heard the thought.

The instructor came in and the class went on as one would expect, lecturing, questions, and a worksheets to go over what to know. The usual stuff. Then it came, the bell signaling it is time for lunch, Nora and Ruby's favorite time of the day. The two raced out of their classrooms and met in the hallway. Ren, Yang, and Weiss followed them to the cafeteria.

Jaune sat at his seat to collect his papers and tapped them on the table to be organized when he put them away in his folder. He stood up for Pyrrha to catch up with him before he left the room. In the distance, another student followed, her bow shifted for a moment.

"So the book report is due in two weeks for Port right?" Jaune asked Pyrrha.

"Yes, so are you going to tell us what this whole team business is about?" Pyrrha deflected Jaune's attempt to change the subject.

"I will, but I don't feel like repeating myself. Let me explain in the cafeteria." Jaune didn't look at Pyrrha as he spoke. She didn't like how he avoided looking at her. It wasn't like him; something deep down bothered him. They walked in silence as the two entered the cafeteria doors and there Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Nora, and Ren were all seated down with their own plates. From the distance, Blake was in line to get her meal alongside Velvet. It seemed like the two talked about something. Jaune stood at the center of the cafeteria and looked around. Pyrrha caught on and stood with him.

"Pyrrha, could you wait at the table? I'll be there in a bit." Jaune rubbed his left eye.

"No, I can stand beside you." Pyrrha insisted.

"Please?" Jaune pressed on.

"I'm staying right here." Pyrrha looked at Jaune sternly. The only other time when she acted like this was during combat back at the incitation test for teams. Jaune recognized the stare because it was the same kind of unmovable stare his sisters would give him. There was no chance for him to argue with her.

"Okay." Jaune said as he looked around the room. After a minute, they appeared, all in the uniforms, Jack walked in front of Daniel and Wolfe. Daniel had Wolfe in a headlock and gave him a nuggie. He rubbed his fist on Wolfe's hair for him to give in as he couldn't do anything to stop it. Jaune's blank expression changed to genuine happiness as he walked up to them with a laugh. Pyrrha couldn't remember the last time Jaune did that with her team.

"Hey boss, how's your day going?" Wolfe broke away from Daniel's grip.

"Fine, what has you in such a good mood?" Jaune asked.

"Numbnuts here learned that Vivian is the same grade level and got himself another date." Daniel added to show why Wolfe was so happy.

"That is indeed true, so what sounds like a good idea for a date?" Wolf looked at his teammates.

"Why not take her to Club Errera?" Jaune suggested.

"Maybe." Wolfe rubbed his chin.

"Oh no no no no. That's my thing." Daniel poked Wolfe in the chest. "I call dibs."

"Damn. Maybe a nice dinner place, I have no idea but I'll figure it out." Wolfe made a toothy grin as he noticed Pyrrha standing beside Jaune. Jack walked passed them as he stood in line to get his food. Wolfe jogged on to catch up with him.

"Hello." Daniel smiled at Pyrrha. She took his gesture and went hello back. Her tone was clear as she recognized him as the description Yang said the previous night. He looked rather young, possibly around Ruby's age if she had to guess.

"Come on, the guys are in line for us." Daniel shook his shoulder and did a light follow me wave. Jaune nodded and Pyrrha followed in tow.

"So you think that the sprinkles will still be good under the skin?" Wolfe felt like continuing the conversation he had with Daniel.

"Of course, that way the sugar of the sprinkle will be preserved in the donut itself. Plus, it becomes a less of a mess when you eat it."

Wolfe shot back. "But on having it on the outside could show your preference and can ward off any snack attacks. I know Jack doesn't touch 'em."

"Agree to disagree?"

"Agreed." Wolfe said after he got his plate of food then so did Jaune. Pyrrha got some chicken fingers with a side of macaroni. Jaune had a turkey and ham sandwich. Then after each member had a plate of food, they all stood there waiting for Jaune to lead them on where to sit down. Jaune shook his head and the rest followed his lead.

They walked and several of the students in Jaune's classroom that overheard him all started to talk. Many of them had theories on how Jaune had gotten a second team. Jaune walked in front of them as he sat down at a table where the others sat down and ironically made room for Jaune's to sit on the opposite side of the table to look directly at Ruby, Weiss, Ren, Nora and Yang.

Pyrrha sat down on the right of Jaune at the edge of the table. Jaune sat down on her left and the rest of AWS sat to the left of him. Each of them stared at the new members. Pyrrha was the only one who actually met two of them before.

"Morning people." Jaune nodded. The rest of RWY and NPR just stared.

"What?" Jaune looked around.

"Who are they?" Weiss asked.

"This here is my second team, Jack Alburn, Tomas Wolfe, and Daniel Steele?" Jaune looked back at the rest of his friends. "Together we form Team JAWS."

"Because you all like sharks?" Ren asked.

"Or is it because Jack here has really sharp teeth?" Pyrrha asked.

"Or how all of you are able to eat up a really big feast?" Yang smiled.

"Or maybe, all of you plan to sharpen your teeth like Jack, because you want to look like sharks and can eat a big feast together?" Nora beamed.

"No, no and probably." Wolfe said with a thought answer as he looked up to the think out the feast part. Jack opened his mouth and widened his lips to show his perfectly flat and well-arranged chompers at the rest. Nora went 'ooohh.'

"Are these your so called imaginary friends? Because all I see is some empty air." Yang chuckled at her own joke. Jack didn't like it as his blank expression changed as his lips went downward from Yang's so called joke. Daniel started to tap all around his chest and looked back at the group.

"Oh thank dust, I thought I wasn't real there for a moment." Daniel snickered.

"We're all friends of Jaune." Wolfe said looking specifically at Yang. She didn't see the slight annoyance on his eyes as he looked at her.

"How'd you all meet?" Ren asked.

"Let's see, I met Wolfe in the library, Jack when Wolfe wanted to show him around town, and Daniel is Wolfe's partner from SHDW." Jaune said then took a bite of his sandwich.

"Why aren't with your team?" Pyrrha leaned forward to get a look at AWS.

"We were kicked out and we don't want to go into the details." Wolfe cut off any further questions to the subject.

"Team JAWS eh? Sounds good to me." Yang looked around. She noticed that Jack has a taste for French fries. He dipped a fry in ketchup and she reach over to snag a fry from his plate and mid-way, Jack caught her arm. Yang looked up at Jack.

"Well, kinda grabby aren't you?" Yang responded.

"He doesn't like it when people do that." Daniel pointed out after he finished chewing his hamburger.

"What do you mean?" Yang looked back. She understood fully well what Daniel meant, she's doing this to get a read on the team. Pushing buttons was Yang's way of testing people. So AWS was no exception to that rule. For Jack however, his expression was completely blank as he waited for her to say the magic word or to pull her arm back, sure he touched her but not at death grip level.

"He'll only allow you if you say 'please?'" Daniel added.

Yang looked back at Jack.

"May I have a fry, please?" And with that, Jack released her and she was able to get a fry. Yang doesn't take any kind of orders from anybody besides family, her team, and Ruby. But considering how they're all friends to Vomit Boy, so by extension Jack gets a pass in her mind. The tension was high as the rest of them took a bite of their perspective food. Yang felt a little of her temper rising before Nora broke it with her special bubbly skills.

"So AWS, do any of you like pancakes?" Little did the team know, that this was Nora's time to test the group.

"I prefer waffles." Wolfe answered, when he did, Nora looked away and turned to Daniel.

"I love pancakes." Daniel nodded.

"Yay! Let's be best pancake buddies." Nora tilted her head. When Daniel looked down to take a bite, he noticed Ren give him a very stern stare. Daniel didn't understand it and shrugged it off.

Jack wince his lip, thought about it and shrugged. Food was food, so whatever that can taste good and have him feel full, he'd eat anything. Nora nodded to the honest thought.

"So Jack do you have any hobbies?" Ruby asked. He turned to her. He opened his mouth and this was news to JWS. Each of them leaned in to hear him better. Jack closed his mouth and made a chewing motion with his mouth. Then from there he balled his hands into fists pushed them together and with a light motion he made it look like he swung an invisible baseball bat. He raised both of his hands victoriously.

"And the crowd goes wild." Wolfe beamed. After he said that he went 'aaaahhhh, aaaahhhh' to emulate the noise of crowd at a baseball game.

"He rounds first base." Jaune joined in on the fun.

"Then second base." Daniel smiled.

"He's passed third base." Wolfe interrupted himself as he drank his soda. A small dribble of it swirled down from his lips.

"He did it, Jack Alburn has won the game." Jaune smiled. The playfulness rubbed off on RWY and NPR. Each of them completed their interview of AWS and started to carry on with the conversation they normally do.

Pyrrha during the whole time was completely silent as she noticed Jaune hasn't been this happy in the time she known him. Sure he would have false bravado and was there whenever someone needed him. Like when Ruby needed help studying for a test when Blake had one of her mood swings, or the time searching high and low for Nora's weapon, Magnhild. Pyrrha blinked. _Speaking of Blake, where is she?_ She thought. She looked around the room as the ebony bow wasn't in sight. It seemed like Blake went out to eat alone like what she usually does time to time.

She looked back at the table as AWS got to know the rest of RWY and NPR. There wasn't any malice, but deep down inside, Pyrrha felt a pit in her stomach. She felt the same way before, back when she was labeled the 'Goddess of Victory.' She thought she got over the feeling but it somehow returned. Pyrrha put up a smile when Jaune looked at her.

Time went on for twenty or so minutes before the teams would have to separate to return to the classrooms. Daniel and Wolfe already left the cafeteria early so because they needed to fetch something from Wolfe's locker. Ruby, Nora, and Ren all left as well. Pyrrha picked at her food slowly as she looked around the room to see the decreasing number of students.

"Are you going to compete with them in the tournament?" Pyrrha asked when she finally took a forkful of macaroni.

"Maybe, we I know we're still going together Pyrrha, we still have two more spots open. We'll figure it out." Jaune said before he stood up. He walked to the closest trash bin and noticed a familiar figure standing behind a pillar. When he focused his vision, the figure disappeared. _Strange_.

Jaune turned around to see that Weiss left as well. Pyrrha walked to a different trash bin and discarded the remains of her food. So from the cafeteria Jaune and Pyrrha returned to the classroom. When they returned they noticed that it was the Headmistress' turn to lecture, and so the class would have to move to arena for more weapons training.

The standard array of students showed up to watch and commentate the aftermath of the fights. Ren sparred with a random student and won. There were more fights to come as Pyrrha left the thoughts from earlier seep away from her mind. It'll still be there but now she had a distraction. They watched as all the students practiced to hone their skills Jaune didn't fight that day because he wasn't called on or felt the need to volunteer. Five minutes before the Headmistress' training ended she made an announcement.

"Okay everyone, tomorrow is the Vytal festival and you will all be given the chance to do missions under the supervision of huntresses and hunters as you all will have. We know there are more students than there are hunters but make sure you do a mission no matter what, this is your first major team assignment for the semester. Be sure to eat healthy and be rested tomorrow morning. Dismissed." Glynda pushed up her glasses when she finished talking.

With that all the students dispersed. NPR wanted to return home to prepared dinner and go to bed early. Jaune walked to the courtyard to see AWS off on their return trip home. Not many of the students live off campus without approving with the Headmaster and Headmistress because they saw it as their duty to let the students attend class without a worry of living outside. Wolfe was a special case since he didn't inform Ozpin of his situation.

Jaune sat down at the courtyard bench keeping an eye out for AWS. The sun was still about but it wasn't evening yet so the heat was still tolerable. Jaune looked up and noticed the clouds. Jaune always thought the clouds were a nice decoration of nature, she they appear often but they shape the sky in lovely ways making the same place look, well not the same. The glow it gives off when the sun is setting, or the dark puffs that hover above a city at night. Or that rays of light that seep through on a rainy day. Clouds were always a sight to behold.

"Is this seat taken?" A familiar disinterested tone asked.

Jaune leaned his head forward and saw Blake standing beside the bench calmly.

"No not at all." Jaune smiled.

"Thanks." Blake did a light smile as she sat down with Jaune. "We got a big week ahead of us." Blake made conversation. Jaune was all too familiar with it.

"Oh yeah, now I got NPR and a groups of assholes to take care of." Jaune snickered.

"Is that how you see them?" Blake turned her head as her face was of confusion.

"What? Oh nonono. I'm just making a joke about them, they're all really great guys. Wolfe's a pal, Jack is tough, and Daniel needs a team."

"Yeah… a team." Blake's eyes drifted off and stared at the grass.

"Is something the matter? I didn't see you at lunch today." Jaune said as he looked away from the clouds to see her with a somewhat sad expression.

"I'm sorry. I guess I've should have told you sooner." Blake finally lifted the burden from her shoulders since the morning.

"What are you talking about?" Jaune's mind raced around hoping this wasn't Payday related, because right now, he has no backup plan.

"This morning when I was in a tree reading, Ozpin came by to say hi from his morning walks. I talked to him about you being there or a group of friends." Blake admitted.

Jaune kept looking at Blake, he wasn't in any angry mood or anything, and he just listened.

"So when I made a reference about it, Ozpin pressed on about you and the three others. I told him how you planned to be there for the one named Daniel, then Jack and Tomas joined in on that promise. Ozpin accepted all that I told him and said he'll do something about it. I didn't know he would have formed a team out if it."

"How did you know that I was at the Jazz club last night?" Then it struck him. Blake was the woman with the lovely hairstyle, he never got a good look at her face and she disappeared when things got serious in the conversation. It all made sense now, Blake was Ozpin's little bird.

"You see, everyone except Ren wanted to spy on you, they failed in doing so. I know all too well about how people keep secrets for a reason, so I thought you deserved that kind of treatment." Blake shrugged. "I was going in to spy on you to get a little information and give enough for the others to give on watching you. I wasn't expecting you to have that conversation with those boys. I'm sorry about that and talking with Ozpin."

Blake finally finished her confession of how she stuck her nose into Jaune's business. She broke her own golden rule, and it ate at her core.

"Don't be Blake." Jaune spoke.

Blake looked up, she wasn't crying or anything this conversation was on her mind since she learned from what Jaune said in the classroom in talking with Pyrrha and Ruby.

"You see, you did me a favor of me being there for my new friends. I mean, I'm an Arc, and us Arcs never go back on our word. If I said that Jack, Dan, Wolfe, and I are a team, then it should be official. You just accelerated the process, and this whole thing isn't hurting anyone. So it's okay Blake, I'm not mad at you and I'm happy you told me this." Jaune nodded.

"I'm glad even, here I was worried that one of us had some kind of stalker watching our every move." Jaune laughed. It was how he really felt and everything he just said set Blake at ease.

"Thanks Jaune. I hope NPR will understand with JAWS around now."

"I hope they will. I will make sure both teams will make it to graduation." Jaune winked. Blake took the wink and rolled her eyes.

"There's the Blake I know. Are you going to get the new release of the Ninjas of Love?" Jaune asked.

"How'd you know about that book series?" Blake turned her head as soon as she heard the Ninja part of the name.

"My sister Ki loves reading those books and kinda pushed the series for me to read. I got into them since she owns every book in the series. I know next week the new one will be released." Jaune rubbed the back of his neck. The Ninjas of Love book series was sought out by all of those that love that kind of fiction. But if 51 Shades of Gray can be called literature, then Ninjas of love seemed tamed in comparison.

"How do you think will be the best for the Golden Samurai?" Blake wanted to test if Jaune really read the books.

"I don't know, it's a tie between Sorakishi and Hana, I mean the both ladies have a reason to like the Golden Samurai. Whenever Sorakishi would be in trouble, GS would show up to help. Though for Hana, her pursue of GS seems pure so far, we won't know until part nine comes out. Let me know how it is before I pick it up." Jaune leaned back to get a view of the clouds.

"I'll be sure to let you know." Blake smiled. She took care of what she wanted to talk about and learned more about Jaune than she bargained for. She never thought he would like Smut books since all she saw him read were those blasted comic books.

"See ya around Blake." Jaune waved her off. Blake waved back as she walked off to her dorm to reread the latest book for the seventh time in preparation for the even newer one coming out.

Jaune continued to check out the clouds for another good twenty minutes. There was this one cloud, it was shaped oddly, and it kinda looked like-

"SHARK!" Wolfe shouted into Jaune's ear as Jacket appeared with a well decorated paper bag over his head.

"AAAHHH!" Jaune shouted as he rolled out of the bench and widened his eyes. He was on the grass as he could have sworn his heart skipped a beat.

Jaune rolled his back as he returned to his senses. He looked around to see AWS. "You guys are serious assholes." Jaune said as Jack offered him a hand to get back on his feet.

"We know, but that's why you love us." Daniel smiled.

"Yeah yeah." Jaune dusted himself off as Wolfe brushed his back.

"Hey boss, we didn't think you see us off today."

"Nah, like I would ever do that. I just wanted to talk to you guys about what mission we could do." Jaune looked around at the three.

"Yeah we wanted to talk to you about that." Daniel said.

"Hmm?" Jaune hummed. Wolfe was the one to speak next.

"We talked about it, and we think you should spend tomorrow's mission with JNPR, because as much as you are a leader to us, you need to be there for them." Wolfe nodded. "Besides, Jack and I will help Dan move in to my place, it should take a couple of days. So don't worry about us, because we have to be there for you as well since we're also stuck with you."

Jaune looked up with a tear from his right cheek. It was a single tear and it was of happiness. "All of you are the best assholes a guy could hope for."

Jaune said his goodbyes to his team as they boarded the public airship to head home. Jaune walked back to his dorm to see Ren and Pyrrha at the kitchen baking up some potatoes as Pyrrha sliced up some spam meat for them to have Spam and Potatoes. Jaune walked in and smiled as he was about to enjoy dinner with JNPR.

**Well, so ends the JAWS arc. I know this one is completely short in just two chapters but it was something I felt that I needed to do. So now all of Jaune's closest friends can now hang out without causing suspicion at Beacon. When I wrote for Ch. 20, I'm not going to lie, I cried while writing it. I mean, I welled up at times, but I didn't fully cry until I had Wolfe hug Daniel. So with this special story arc out of the way, it paves the long road ahead I have planned for this story. Get your favorite snacks ready for the next chapter of the Grimm fights.**

**Let me get this out of the way now. JAWS and SHDW will have a showdown Eventually.**

**For the cover art, I made a rather bland sketch on my deviant art profile. But also on deviant art, please check out oobidoobi. He's awesome.**

**The Cover art: ** art/Jaunes-Fall-From-Grace-Cover-Request-532871932

**As always, thank you so much for reading, have a great day, and to please review.**

**Now for the response corner:**

**Lukefang: **Sorry about the glass, and SHDW will be around for a nice bit of comeback from JAWS.

**Iandude:** Thank you for liking the chapter. I have some stuff planned out for the Jazz Café. Team SHDW will have a match with JAWS eventually. Thank you so much for reading.

**Drow79:** I do like this change of pace as well. As I wanted Jaune to really bond with his team mates. Thank you so much for reading.

**MajorDarkBlade:** Yeah, Jaune is starting to get serious about the work he's been doing. I can't give away too much of the story, sorry. Thank you so much for reading.

**Supernoob257: **What are you referring to? Can you PM me about it please? Thank you.

**CrimsonHeresy:** I enjoyed the chapter immensely as well. I wanted to have JAWS really become JAWS in being there for each other. I'm grateful you feel that way by the end of the chapter. Thank you very much for reading.

**Iijdgreat916:** I ecstatic you feel that way. The Payday Gang is fun to write when they bicker. Thank you so much for the compliment and I hope you'll like this chapter.

**RyderRosas: **3 things. 1. Writing the RWBY bit was a blast. 2, I hope you'll look forward to the SHDW and JAWS showdown. 3, You may most definitely can give Houston a hug. He needs it.


	22. Chapter 22, Shawn's Hot World

**Before we get started, I would like to request that you would take a moment to check out my new RWBY story "Crocea Conquerors." It's a war story of Jaune in a harsh military and has to fight against the world government, it's an introduction chapter that helped me get out of writer's block to work on this. Just to give you a hint of what's in it, Nora has a jetpack. So yeah, please give it a read.**** Now let's continue.**

The sky darkened out as the current police and investigation forces were cleared out. The airships prepared to take the workers back home. Violet stood over the hill overlooking the plantation. To his right Sam walked up with a half-hearted smile, she stood in a leaning posture with her left hand at her hip.

"We know that the Payday Gang operates in Vale. So far the local police and investigation officers won't allow us to research there." Violet summed up. He felt cheated on this assignment.

"There isn't much we can do about it, we just have to be patient in case of something happens for us to respond to." Sam gave her thought about the situation as she walked toward the closest airship. The crews were forced out by the local cartel. It was about time the Mendozas begin to repair their investment.

Investigation Day, five hours earlier

Several trucks drove through the burnt dirt with the foul stench of the plants blanketed the air. Three men in suits can be clearly seen inside the trucks. One suited individual in particular wore a blue fedora hat along with a stern expression plastered on his face. Sam cracked a joke to Violet of how the fedora wearer looked constipated. The guy just did his best to look professional since the first Payday Gang incident 2 months earlier when two of those criminals floored him in combat when he tried to arrest them. The office would recall his recent failure and branded him for it on his record. This was his task to redemption.

"Damn, we're out of time." Violet commented as he closed his notepad. He looked around to see Sam bend over to a fragment of tbe Beetle that was supposedly overpowered by the Payday Gang.

"What would it take to put on of these things in the dirt?" Sam asked. She clearly noticed the incoming trucks and vans. She didn't care about them in the slightest. It was about the job and not the supposed power you get to flaunt around with a badge. _Just be happy you earned a damn badge to do the job_. Sam repeated her mantra of those she despised to remind her of what her job was about.

"Something with armor piercing capabilities, constant bombardment of weapons, and or an EMP device. Whatever you get, it has to be expensive." Violet answered.

Sam noticed the various burns on the ground around the shell of the Beetle. So that could mean-

"What are you doing here?" A voice called out.

"Fuck…" Violet moaned and turned toward the voice. He saw three men in suits with the fedora wearer in front narrowed eyebrows. From that, he shoved his way past Violet. He brushed his chest and wiped it on one of the fedora wearer's entourage. Violet did that because he didn't want the stink of a jerk on his clothes. It was stupid but Violet does not like to be touched.

"Do you have clearance for this area?" The fedora wearer was ready to breach Sam's personal space.

"This whole region is part of our place of employment. I thought to be an officer was to work to catch the criminals not shove everyone else out of the way?" Sam looked of the fedora's shoulder. "Figuratively and literally, asshole… I mean Gideon."

Tiel Gideon adjusted his fedora. "Hand over all collected evidence and information to our division so we can continue where you left off. Dismissed." He waved her off. Sam gave Tiel the middle finger when he walked pass her.

"I expect you'll say the same thing since the Payday Gang gave you that thrashing in Vale?" Sam tested her luck with Gideon.

He grumbled as he looked toward his subordinates. "Begin a thorough search of the area. Check in with me in two hours to report what you found. There's still a chance they slipped up."

Violet walked beside Sam. "I got what we need in my notepad." He whispered. His notepad sat comfortably in his upper left breast pocket.

"Fine and don't tell anyone." Sam replied.

"Don't tell anyone about what?" Gideon asked. His men already walked off into the fields and stared at the two investigators. "Is there information I need to carry out my duty?"

"No, we just didn't find much besides a mess and the same story of the Payday Gang in masks making fools out of the soldiers posted here." Sam shot back.

"Did they speak in names, numbers, or anything?" Gideon pressed on.

"From the interviews, none of them heard the members of the Payday Gang talk. All to the living members beside the droids were knocked down by the electro rounds then became intoxicated by the fumes when they lit up the fields. That's all you're going to get." Violet shrugged as he looked back toward the fields. There was no way Sam would be as willing to distribute information.

Gideon looked to the ground then walked into the field to speak with the men in the area.

"Why do all the guys from Bureau act as if they got something to prove?" Sam asked.

"I guess it's just the eager ones." Violet added as he and Sam continued to gather what little information they could. They didn't have to report back to their respective city because there the other members were already working on the case there. Sam and Violet were the leftovers of the police investigation branch. No one really wanted them unless it was with a case of watching over the area before the other investigators arrived. Not that they cared, Sam and Violet took the time to help research the cases and helped closed a good portion of them.

During that time. Violet wrote pages of information into his notepad.

Investigation airship, five hours later.

Sam sat on near the center of the airship as she and Violet were the last ones to be taken out of the Mendoza fields.

"It seems that the Payday Gang is growing. Either this attack was coordinated from Vale or a move to display power. It's a little risky but I think there's a chance the Payday Gang is trying to incur gang wars all over Vale."

"I remember you said something about that. Junior's gang, The Mendozas, and the Commissar."

"Correct. Something about these guys is too erratic. It's like they have no purpose at all." Violet thought out loud. Then the thought struck him. "… They're mercenaries."

"It would make sense, all the plays and yet no real presence in Vale to peddle some kind of rule over the region." Sam rubbed her chin.

"The only way we can really find anything out is if we transfer to Vale." Violet replied. He didn't look forward to being a new office building and to be the lapdog to a bunch of assholes.

"I'll get the paperwork ready." Sam smirked.

_Damn…_ Violet thought and cursed his big mouth.

Underground Vale bar, Night before the Vytal Festival

A group of men in casual clothing all stood together for a nice laugh around the bar. The place wasn't the most fancy of establishments; it was still a place of memory. The bar was built shortly after the Freedom Wars. Opened by a survivor of the front, when coming home, soldiers still needed a place to unwind. The bar was welcomed and was the meeting place for various soldiers of the war. It was once called the nicest bar in Vale. In truth it was, until time continued to do what it does best. Eventually all the patrons aged out, died, and the descendants couldn't care less.

It was a shame really. It was the place a local gangster took his first date. He had flowers, new clothes, and begged his sister to lend him some money. His date loved the place, but soon grew tired of the place and therefore, her boyfriend. Everyone he knew grew tired of this bar. It happened enough to the point he doesn't try with anyone anymore. Here, the only patrons were people who never changed from the way they would sit in the seats.

Sure the place could use a little work. The stools could be replaced from the several bent ones, the door hinges needed to be oiled, the bathroom could be changed out to allow modern day relevant graffiti on the stalls, and the place could have an insect exterminator come by earn his paycheck. The gangster took a sip of his watered down whisky.

With all of that he could do, it would lose its luster to him. The bar was considered to be the nicest place was because of how the Faunus was welcomed to come in and drink from the old days. The place was built by a Faunus refugee for the Faunus refugees. It was a place that was numb to the idea of their existance to be hated. By all means, the Faunus is superior to humans because of their natural talents. The problem was that the human population greatly outnumbered the Faunus. Methods of segregation ensued.

At the bar, the same men laughed and one of them broke a shot glass for the fun of it.

"Fucking idiots." The gangster said toward his men as they broke a shot glass.

One of them noticed the gangster's distain. "Sorry boss."

"Just be mindful of what you're doing!" He spat out. Each of them at the bar all nodded from the order.

The glass in shattered pieces was brushed off the bar. The place couldn't afford a starry eyed waitress to watch over the place. All of them were too smart to be in such a place. It would be several hours before the glass would be cleaned up. The gangster drank the rest of his whisky.

"Tastes like piss." He said. It was loud enough for patrons close enough to hear. None of them reacted to it.

The door opened for it to allow a nice beam of light. The gangster could guess who the new patron would be.

"Still lounging around Shawn's Hot World?" Another and admittedly better dressed gangster asked. That was the name of the bar by the way. The owner thought if something could have a stupid name, it would be more memorable or people who visit.

"It's my second home." The first gangster raised his head and waved his arm. From there, the men at the bar carried out the order. Each other patron of the bar was forced out and was met with little resistance. After that, each of the men walked to the entrances to the bar.

"What do you got for me Hector?" The first gangster looked to his right. From the hour of waiting, the gangster only had one drink to last him for during that time.

"The phone call would've been better." The gangster looked forward.

"I just received a shipment of product and I need you to distribute it. I get 65% of the profit and you can claim the rest." Hector took a seat at the bar.

"Deal." The gangster looked up. "Would you like some vodka?" The gangster spoke in a thick accent of that of the southern tribes. There, the people live in the mountains and speak in brash tones.

"Cut the act Vlad." Hector replied.

"Hey, I'm on the rise like fucking sputnik!" The gangster named Vlad stood up from his chair. "Fuck you, you damn dog."

"This coming from the Faunus lover." Hector retorted.

"Hey, in the bedroom, their animalistic side makes it wild and all to more memorable." Vlad made a hearty laugh.

"Anyway Vlad. I just wanted to transfer some info off to you." Hector remained in his chair.

"Are the cops making a play again?"

"Nah, nothing like that. I'm sure you've heard about the thing that happened to the Mendozas, right?" Hector spoke in his usual calm tone.

"I have."

"Well. Just be ready to have some spending money in case you want something to be taken care of by a crew."

"I already have men for that. What's different?" Vlad asked.

"The Payday Gang is what's different. They took the fields with a small crew while being armed to the teeth, leave no trace, and complete the job." Hector said to his business partner. "Remember the Commissar?"

"That fucking asshole? His whole operation was crippled; I collected the scraps of his men." Vlad blinked as he learned what by Hector meant. "The Payday Gang was responsible for that?"

"Indeed."

"Why are you telling me about this?" Vlad frowned.

"They work for the cash, just something for you to remember in the future." Hector leaned away from the bar.

"How do they like to be contacted?" Vlad asked. He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't interested in what the Payday Gang could offer him.

"Bain, remember the name of Bain." Hector stood up from his seat. "Or are you too drunk to remember something like this?"

"Yeah fuck you too." Vlad gave Hector the middle finger as he walked out of Shawn's Hot End. Vlad looked toward the bar and rubbed his chin. Vlad thought of all the possible things he procrastinated for the past several months. A crew that is both expendable and effective. "…Bain…"

Beacon Academy, morning of the Vytal Festival

Pyrrha opened her eyes to the blue ceiling of the dorm. She yawned and turned her head as by now of her training, Pyrrha would wake up at five in the morning by habit. It was a nice thing too since Ren was a light sleeper, while Nora was the opposite.

_How did those two ever meet?_ Pyrrha did a light laugh to herself at the thought of small six year old Nora running alongside a six year old Ren.

She leaned up and rubbed the crust from her eyes. Today was the day to celebrate the end of the Freedom Wars.

_That's right; we have our first mission today._ Pyrrha turned her head and noticed Jaune hugging his pillow again. How Jaune likes to sleep is by kicking off his blankets since his onesie could keep him warm. Ren and Nora preferred to keep their covers.

Pyrrha leaned up and removed her covers to stand up from her bed. Like with most morning rituals, she raised her arms toward the ceiling. Her muscles relaxed and she yawned again. The day seemed like it could be a nice one. From her time at Beacon, it was a nice change of pace to have to do school than having to worry about tournaments all the time.

She went through her morning routine of brushing her teeth and change into her jogging clothes. The morning blue light had Pyrrha become excited for the day. She felt prepared. Pyrrha found her key and left the dorm. She left the dorm on her quiet note. Beacon was designed to have the area be accessible for the students in which they wish to train. That would include the various pathways to form jogging tracks. Pyrrha was big fan of that.

On her jogs, she would see the other students about who had the same idea. She recognized the one named Fox from team CFVY to be among the students who jogged. He would nod to everyone he would pass by. Pyrrha returned the nod. She continued her routine until she felt it was time to return to the dorm.

When she entered the dorm, she noticed Ren was up and at the desk looking over another book. Nora wasn't in her bed and the dorm bathroom light was on. The only person that wasn't in the room was Jaune.

"Where's Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she wiped her forehead with a towel.

"He woke up early to go out into the courtyard. He said something about meeting with Jack to discuss something." Ren flipped the page of his book.

Team JAWS, the thought returned to her like being pegged by a small rock.

From the past month, Jaune would always be there from what she suggested of training Jaune. She taught him the best way to handle defensive tactics with the shield and sword. Pyrrha admitted went overboard at times on the sessions. Like the time she had her shield smash into his chest to knock the wind out of him. But with every session, Jaune would get back up and ready for more.

As Pyrrha helped him improve toward his combat skills; it would seem that Jaune sought out new friends. She didn't know much about them but from what Yang told her about Sho SHDW. The thought puzzled her. Because of how Jaune became part of a new team so soon, or have a second team at all.

Pyrrha was prepared for anything but for JAWS; it was the only thing that caught her off guard.

Pyrrha buried the thought as she took a shower after Nora had her turn and dressed in her combat gear. There was to be an assembly with the Headmaster after breakfast. The door opened up and showed Jaune with a happy expression on his face.

"Morning." He smiled.

Ren nodded to him, Pyrrha responded with her hello, and Nora was well… Nora.

Everyone got dressed and made their way to the cafeteria for breakfast. Apparently RWBY showed up early went back to their dorm to prepare for something. It wasn't out of the ordinary from what Pyrrha could tell.

For team RWBY, Blake and Ruby are the heaviest sleepers. The clocks won't wake them and neither will loud noise. One morning, Weiss got frustrated with the both of them, so she devised a plan. Whenever Ruby or Blake won't wake up on time, Weiss will drop an ice cube into their shirts. Weiss saw this as ideal conditioning for them to become ideal students. To everyone else, it was just a harsh prank from the Ice Queen, but this prank however was Yang approved. Pyrrha remembered hearing Ruby and Blake shout in surprise and with their grouchy moods to snap back at Weiss and Yang,

"Come on people. We have to get in line." Nora tugged at Pyrrha's arm. She wanted to stand in line for the cafeteria ladies. Ren walked ahead of them because he already knew of the outcome whenever Nora was hungry. Jaune jogged to them and stood in line. Pyrrha felt at ease whenever the team would be like this.

In the line the team was the next to be served. Pyrrha was first, then Jaune, Ren and Nora. Pyrrha got some waffles, Ren wanted some fruit, Jaune had some cereal, and Nora claimed her usual meal of pancakes. Then the unexpected happened. Ren noticed a nice fleshy yellow apple. He reached for it and since Nora wasn't paying attention she bumped into Ren which caused her to bump into his back and she dropped her tray, and the pancakes along with it.

The horror was expressed in the still framed smile Nora had on her face. She turned her head toward Ren. The pancakes were soiled.

"Now hold on." Ren passed his tray to Jaune.

"You're gonna get it Ren!" Nora shouted for Ren to run off with her right behind him. Nothing gets between Nora and pancakes. After Nora somehow dished out some of her personal justice. They returned with Ren with his silk shirt missing a left sleeve.

Pyrrha and Jaune pretended like they didn't see anything. While Nora chased after Ren, the last of the pancakes was given to the students. So that meant Nora would have no pancakes for the Vytal festival. That was strike two for Ren. Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh.

"Be careful next time Ren." Pyrrha covered her lip as she laughed.

Each of them finished their meal and it was time to wait in the atrium for the speech of Ozpin to the students. After several moments, JNPR all stood at one end of the atrium. All the students from their respective kingdoms grouped themselves for the event. Several wanted to have some sort of diving line between them because of how some of the students thought of themselves as better hunters. Vacuo was the most accepting government of the Faunus while Atlas was the least. Mistral counted as well but it was a place of constant debate.

"Attention students." The headmistress spoke into the intercom. It was finally time for the event to begin. Headmaster Ozpin walked up to the podium. Still outside of his office, Ozpin carried his beloved coffee mug.

"Good day students." Ozpin started his speech. He reminded the students that they were of the time to be hunters. They're here for the world, to serve the people, and be the force to change the world. It's because of that, it is what it means to be a Hunter. The Freedom Wars served as the prime example of how far selfish ideals could get. The time when the city of Vacuo which was home to the expressionist movement, the Faunus labor camps, and the final days of the war. Those in protest to the destruction of expression choose to risk the lives of their children to be named after color. The trend caught fire to the refugees and many such people. It served as an unspoken message for the new generation to appreciate the concept of individuality. It is a time to be grateful to live in a changing era. That is what Ozpin expressed to the current freshmen of Hunters. This is what Pyrrha felt like Ozpin meant to tell the students.

"Remember to be safe, remember your training, and to do your very best." Ozpin finished his speech. He walked away from the podium.

_To what kind of mission will we undertake?_ Pyrrha looked to her left to see Jaune walk away. In the distance, Pyrrha could clear see team AWS in uniform and among the Vale students. Jaune was with them having a conversation, the atrium was too loud for her to hear anything.

Then Jaune smiled with them again. He's always smiling when he's around them. A small sensation of something she hasn't experienced much in her life.

Pyrrha looked at the floor. What was this new feeling? She took a moment to recall the word. She nodded to what she felt and doesn't like this feeling at all. It's not something that can agree on she operated. Pyrrha Nikos needs a chance to figure out a way to handle the situation and handle it accordingly.

She looked to her right to see team RWBY standing in front of the mission board with Headmaster Ozpin. It seemed that RWBY wanted to do a mission and Ozpin typed something into his personal tablet. From there, the rest of RWBY smiled and nodded to him. It seemed that Ozpin had more words of wisdom to teach them.

"So, what do we have in mind today for what kind of mission to do" Jaune asked as he waved to his _other _team.

Pyrrha didn't bother to turn to them as they left the atrium. Nora waved her hand at them and so did Ren.

"Can we do a rescue mission? I think there was a missing trader that needs help." Nora suggested, she kept her usual beaming smile. Jaune looked at Pyrrha and Ren. It was something that all of them understood as the basic principal to be a hunter.

"Let's do it." Jaune tilted his head and made a half-hearted grin.

"What about JAWS?" Pyrrha asked with her normal tone of voice. She hid an underlying thought within the question.

"Oh them? Well they wanted to do something about a living situation for Dnaiel, they needed the time and thought that I wanted me to be with you all. So yeah." Jaune shrugged at the end.

"Like we're so lucky." Nora giggled. Pyrrha knew that she didn't mean anything by it.

Jaune typed in the team name into the terminal. In the Emerald forest, a trader went in to travel out into a local nomadic tribe for a distribution of goods. The trader went mission after he didn't make it home the day before. So that would mean he was trapped somewhere and needed the help.

Ren walked to the board and widened his eyes.

"What is it Ren?" Nora asked and tilted her head.

"According to our Huntsman that will come with is none other than."

"Me." Headmistress Goodwitch pushed the bridge of her glasses up and looked out to JNPR. She walked behind them when Jaune typed in their team name.

"Headmistress, I'm honored." Pyrrha clenched a fist and placed it over her heart and bowed to her. She gave her the Mistral styled salute.

"There's no need for that Ms. Nikos. I just received the message of how JNPR wants the mission of the missing trader. It was something I've had great interest as well. We leave in one hour, gather your gear and be ready to move." Glynda turned around to do the same.

"Understood headmistress." Headmistress Goodwitch nodded to the team and walked off to prepare herself for the journey as well.

Ren looked out to his team. "Earlier, Team RWBY looked like they're ready to leave. I think we should send them our best wishes before they leave."

"Did Ren just talk?" Jaune asked.

"I know, it's weird." Pyrrha looked up. "Have the planets aligned?" She snickered at her own joke.

Ren rolled his eyes. He clearly wasn't amused. Nora elbowed him in the stomach and he changed his expression back to calm.

"Good idea Ren. Let's go." Pyrrha walked ahead of her team. Each of them agreed to the idea. From the courtyard, team CFVY walked passed them on the way in to accept another mission directly after the one they just completed. JNPR made sure to make their hello and Coco wished them luck on their assignment. In the distance, Nora spotted RWBY making their way across the airstrip to board an airship. JNPR waved their goodbyes to CFVY and started to walk to catch up with RWBY in time.

From the sudden stop of RWBY, it seemed like that each of them was surprised by the Huntsman they're tagging along with. It was difficult to tell which instructor it was.

"Well, we get to save with world with Dr. Oobl… okay when you said it out loud its much worse." Ruby dropped her shoulders. The rest of RWBY must have felt the same way about something.

"SAVE THE WORLD, you're going on world saving missions without us!? I'm hurt, sad, and a little hungry. The last one wasn't your fault… Ren" Nora shot Lie Ren a frustrated stare. Ren looked to the sky and crossed his arms. Pyrrha wanted to explain what happened but RWBY didn't look like they were that interested.

"Sounds exciting." Pyrrha got back to the topic at hand. _I really hope they'll have a safe mission_. She looked to her left at Jaune who had a rather calm expression about him. _It must be that he trusts them enough to do well._

"So where are you going?" Jaune asked.

"Sorry Jaune, that's top secret information." Ruby did a devious smile as she had the mission of RWBY clouded in mystery. She tugged at the end of her red hood and covered her head. She tugged it down to the point that JNPR couldn't see her eyes.

"We got a Seek and Destroy mission. Yang here needs to blow off steam by killing some Grimm." Weiss gave it away.

"Weiss, it was supposed to be a secret!" Ruby looked up quickly which had her hood flip backward to from covering her head.

"Ice Queen here feels the same way." Blake added.

"Why does everyone call me that?" Weiss puffed with a small bout of frustration on her forehead. _This is the part where Jaune will say something. _Pyrrha concluded.

…

…

… _Jaune?_

From the silence. It looked like RWBY didn't have much to say about what they wanted to do. Then someone finally broke the silence.

"Hey Blake, that book was released today, I asked my sister to mail me a copy. You want it when I'm done?" He asked.

"Yeah, thanks."

_Wait? Blake talks to Jaune now?_ Pyrrha blinked her eyes several times as RWY brushed off what they talked about as Dr. Oobleck waited for them to board the airship.

"We're three minutes behind schedule ladies!" Dr. Oobleck zoomed off into his airship.

"Wish us luck." Yang waved at JNPR.

"We all know you don't need it!" Nora shouted. She nodded her head in excitement because of the mission they were about to undertake. JNPR walked off to their dorm to gather the rest of their belongings. During that whole walk, Pyrrha grew ever more curious on what _book_ Blake referred to. A cook book, being a huntsman for dummies, or killing Grimm with Spruce Willis?

In about twenty minutes, JNPR was ready with all of their combat gear. Jaune remained in an overall calm exterior at the dorm and the walk to regroup with Ms. Goodwitch.

Pyrrha adjusted her armor while she gathered her scroll and other assorted belongings. Ren changed his silk shirt into a heavier one. Even though Ren may look like he just wears normal clothes, he has several armored silk shirts that can endure being slashed at by Beowolves. Jaune changed out his hoodie for a cleaner one. He had two of the same hoodies. Nora strapped on her new belt she ordered from the internet of her special hammer logo of Magnhild. It was pink and with a grey outline on the belt itself.

JNPR left the dorm and locked the door. They were ready for their first REAL mission together. The four of them walked into the courtyard to see rather casually dressed headmistress.

She had black pants that wasn't squeezing the life out of her legs. Her legs had black leggings with purple athletic shoes. The shoes had white laces around them and was double knotted. Her upper body had a dark green long sleeve shirt and for the weather, the headmistress had a black crop top jacket with purple fleece inside. She wasn't wearing her glasses as he eyes could be seen clearly. She must be wearing contacts because of how easy it is to lose glasses while out on a hunt. Her hear was tied back into a neat little bun from the hole of her purple baseball cap. Just by first glance, Miss Glynda Goodwitch could pass as a senior to Beacon Academy. Several of the male students glanced at her with a variety of expressions. She couldn't care less. _If she wants to fight Grimm, then let her do in what she feels comfortable in._ Pyrrha felt a sense of duty to carry out against those who would say otherwise.

"Well look at you headmistress, you clean up well." Nora said while walking around Glynda.

"Well, thank you Ms. Valkyrie." She responded by instinctively move her right index finger to her nose. Then she remember she left her glasses at her office.

"Well JNPR, I have scheduled an airship to take us deep into the Emerald Forest, I'm sure all of you feel comfortable in your current clothes because this mission may take longer than expected." She spoke in her usual authoritarian tone.

"We're ready Headmistress." Pyrrha spoke for the team.

"Very well, come along now, we leave immediately."

JNPR walked directly behind their current observing huntress. This is the time for team JNPR to prove themselves. _Well, what will happen when JAWS will go on a mission?_ Pyrrha blinked her eyes and kept them closed for several seconds. What Pyrrha saw was Jaune Arc with his new team having an excellent time. Nora and Ren standing together at within her vision. Both happy and with a smile to JAWS. The students of Beacon with their partners. The people they trained with, laughed with, and fight with. In the center of it all. Pyrrha could see herself, with a smile… and alone. She was alone with no one to talk to her, no one to understand her, and no one to be there for her. Jaune Arc wasn't there for her anymore.

For the first time outside of combat, she felt scared. Pyrrha Nikos, the Goddess of Victory felt scared.

"Okay Pyrrha. Are you ready for the mission?" Jaune offered his arm to help Pyrrha board the airship. She looked to the floor and tightened the grip of her weapon.

"Absolutely Jaune, let's go."

**There is absolutely no way I'm going to make this story fade away from my mind. I know I promised a Grimm fight, I'm sorry for the delay. I got sick; my laptop caught a virus and I need to get it fixed, also mixed with writers block, and I'm caught up with helping my sister move into her new apartment. Life has hit me hard in the past several weeks. I'll bring what I promised in the next chapter, please just bear with me. This one here is just me giving you something in the mean time. I'm happy to those of you who are concerned for the story. Sure I worked on my other stuff during that time and now I've finally updated this one. Readers have been asking me a lot about Vlad, and here my chance to finally introduce him. I know there are plenty of more stuff into the future. To all of you lovely people, with the deepest part of my heart, Thank you so so much. Now that I got that off my chest, time for the response corner.**

**Crimson Hersey: **I wanted to have the team of Jaune's Payday Gang be legit at Beacon. This works out well in my mind. JAWS is something I have plenty of fun envisioning stuff for. I can see what you mean by that about Yang, for her, I get the vibe that she thinks that she can fight anyone and still win. When she fights characters in the canon, she's having fun. I might be harsh on her, but she's still learning on becoming a huntress. Yang is the kinda person who could take something embarrassing and have it remind people about it. Thank you so much for reading.

**Iandude: **Thank you for reading.

**BadPuns:** You never know on how it will be for Jaune. It may sound pompous from me, but I don't want to spoil the fun for you, sorry. Thank you for reading and have an excellent day.

**Petty Officer Waffles: **It is something I'm curious about as well. Have an awesome day.

**Lukefang: **Shh! Thank you for reading.

**MightyPrussia: **I love the cover art as well. . The fight will happen, I assure you. Have a kickass day.

**Drow79: **We all are. Thank you for reading.

**Ghost-407: **The Alesso Heist was cool. It seems that going loud is the best way to go. Well, we'll learn more about the variety of heists as this story continues. Thank you so much for reading.


	23. Chapter 23, First Missions

**The artist KegiSpringfield made some fan art of my story. It looks great and I highly recommend checking out Kegi's works of art and fan fictions. It's all an interesting read. KegiSpringfield likes to draw several images to go along with the fan fictions. It helps in enjoying the stories all the more.**

**The image Kegi made:** art/Fanfic-s-fanart-Jaune-s-Fall-From-Grace-537402837

**The fan fiction profile:** u/3767341/Kegi-Springfield

**Thank you KegiSpringfield.**

**The song for this chapter is "**Sheperd of Fire**" by Avenged Sevenfold.**

**Link: ** watch?v=7GLkvCrcExU

**Now let us continue.**

Headmistress Goodwitch stood at the center end of the airship.

"The Trader's name is Blu Sampson. Age 43, and current Vale trader. Small time as he doesn't like to be part of a corporation's payroll. He walked into the Emerald forest to meet with his supplier of weaved goods and he has returned since, that was two days ago. We have the task of finding him and report back with him. If found less than alive, we'll have to monitor the body until another team can regroup with us." She said in a calm tone.

"Does he have any formal training from handling Grimm?" Pyrrha asked. _I hope so, maybe he could be alive and holed up somewhere_. Pyrrha didn't want her first mission to be of that of discovering someone was killed.

"He does, but not at a Hunter's level."

"What should we expect in terms of resistance?" Jaune asked.

"Typical Grimm, remember this isn't a Seek and Destroy mission, a person's life is at stake." Glynda looked to her right to see Nora eagerly brushing her weapon Magnhild. The rotating shells of the grenades spun, while Nora had an excited expression.

"Miss Valkyrie, do you have something on your mind?" Glynda asked.

"No ma'am, I just want to go out there and get this Blu guy out. This is what being a Hunter is about? To be there for the people?" Nora stopped.

"It is, as well as that, you'll to have to manage with self-control Nora. Do you understand?" Glynda replied.

"I understand, I just choose to ignore it." Nora smiled. Glynda remembered how anxious freshmen can be, so she'll let that slide for now. "Mr. Arc, what do you want to do first since you're this team's leader?"

Jaune looked away and out over the view of Vale become small in the distance. _We never really had any team building besides the little food fight we had back._ Pyrrha recalled the thought that hasn't crossed her mind. _How do we even fair as a team?_ Jaune looked up from the view.

"We move in to the last known location of the trader and search for a trail from there, make our way through the forest and kill the Grimm that stands in our way. Just avoiding them will leave us at a disadvantage if we discover that Mr. Sampson is injured. We rally into some sort of clearing or road to be picked up by an airship or walk back to the closest town. One of the two."

Glynda narrowed her eyes as Jaune finished his orders. _Where did all of this come from? Does he think like this all the time?_ Pyrrha thought of Jaune with hint of a dumbfounded expression.

"Very well, you heard your team leader, kill in the path and bring the trader back." Glynda walked the middle part the airship and had her right hand take hold of a metal pole. She wanted to stand at the ready in case of something happens.

Pyrrha walked beside Jaune.

"Are you okay?" Jaune asked without turning his head.

"What?" She pretended to downplay the question.

"Are you OKAY?" Jaune over emphasized the end of his sentence. He looked at Pyrrha with a calm but stern expression.

"I'm fine Jaune. I just have the first mission jitters is all." _Keep it to yourself Pyrrha._

"Ah." Jaune raised his head to pretend he could understand. _This is his first mission as well._ Pyrrha looked around to see Nora sitting beside Ren as Nora rambled on about something that Ren would listen to and act like he was ignoring her but wasn't.

The flight continued for another thirty minutes. Pyrrha sat down the talk to Nora about the daily news and other such small talk to pass the time. Jaune watched out below and didn't move often outside of adjusting himself more comfortably from his grip. _Is he trying to ignore us? No, Jaune wouldn't do that_. Pyrrha stared at Nora but behind her was Jaune at the bay door.

Jaune looked away from the bay door and walked to the same seats as his team. "So, what do we recommend we do when we find Mr. Sampson?" Jaune looked over his shoulder. "I just said random stuff when Ms. Goodwitch talked to me." Jaune looked over his shoulder.

"There's the Jaune we know." Ren spoke for the team. They huddled together to talk of the plan when they find Blu Sampson.

Meanwhile, at Mount Glenn

"You know, I would think we would get to see a Huntsman in action." Yang complained to Weiss. It's been two hours since team RWBY landed at Mount Glenn with Doctor Oobleck. The girls endured a long trip with the Hunter as he replied to all of their questions. To what RWBY was looking for as well as their task. They just arrived at the Ruined City of Mount Glenn.

"I agree." Weiss nodded to Yang. Mount Glenn was an expansion of the city of Vale but failed completely because of how well the Grimm could attack the workers. It was a place of constant work and was close being finished, but there weren't enough Hunters to help monitor the safety. Eventually the Grimm amassed a group so large it attacked the expansion and killed hundreds of people. The city was sealed off from Vale and stood abandoned as a reminder to the area of how dangerous the Grimm could be. Oobleck was selected by Ozpin for how dangerous the area could be.

The objective is to kill Grimm and to find any sign of the White Fang. Undoubtedly, Headmaster Ozpin informed the secret mission that RWBY wanted to do. Ozpin could admit he doesn't know what they're looking for but he wants Oobleck there in case something does happen. Team RWBY is still freshmen after all.

Ozpin and Oobleck were of the same class back when they were training to become Hunters. So the respect between them didn't need to be expressed. Dr. Oobleck accepted the task and here he was with RWBY.

"Not every encounter has to an act of heroism, Yang. I am in action, just in the way I prefer, to use my research." Oobleck happily walked along the crumbling street.

"I bet it's more like he doesn't know even how to fight." Yang whispered.

Blake and Ruby ignored her statement against the Professor Oobleck.

"What are your orders Doctor?" Blake asked. From the moment Blake met Dr. Oobleck, she was the one of the few students that always remembered to called Oobleck by his real title, the one he worked for, Doctor.

"We'll make our way through the city and eliminate the Grimm we come across. Your team did agree on a Search and Destroy mission." Dr. Oobleck marched off.

"Um, Dr. Oobleck, are you sure it was a good idea to leave Zwei behind?" Ruby walked ahead of him.

"Of course Ruby, I am here to test you and your team's abilities, if the teams at Beacon need a trained animal by their side, then I would have allowed it. But with that in mind, I do not want to worry about the well-being of your beloved pet as it could cause a potential risk our endeavors." He waved hand into the air. Back before RWBY left Beacon, Zwei popped out a backpack Ruby had to bring Zwei along for the trip. Oobleck ordered Blake to take the dog back to their dorm. He knew Blake doesn't like Zwei and would carry out his order.

RRAAAWR! Several pitch black pelts of fur howled at the Team and Hunter. RWBY drew their weapons and prepared for a fight.

"Show me what you're capable of." Oobleck said as he took a sip of his coffee.

Team RWBY sprang into action toward the Grimm.

Emerald Forest, at the same time.

The three hour journey finally reached its peak as JNPR watched the forest from the bay door as the Airship lowered to a small clearing of grass. Nora and Jaune were the first two to get off and prepare for whatever would come their way. Nothing did however. Pyrrha and Ren walked beside Glynda and the three walked ahead of them.

"Alright JNPR, your assessment begins now."

Jaune nodded to Glynda then looked forward. Pyrrha rallied behind Nora and the two walked together and Jaune and Ren watched the flanks. They were about two kilometers away from the last location of Blu Sampson. They couldn't travel without further risk of Nevermore attacks. The airship pilot discovered a nearby tribe that is about twenty kilometers away and won't move for several days, she told them that she would wait there until they could be extracted.

Team JNPR continued to walk in a square formation to have Glynda in the center. The walk went well for about seven minutes until a pack of Beowolves cut off their path. Nora and Jaune sprinted in action.

"Okay, who's first?" Jaune jogged up. The ground crashed behind him, that feeling that something stood behind him was very apparent. He slowly turned his head to see an Ursa Major stare directly at him. The large black beast lowered its head and roared at Jaune.

Ursa Major are bear like creatures with pitch black fur and have the ability to adjust its bones to have the spine act as an exo-skeleton. The spine also exposed several spare spikes to the spine which the Ursa Major could use as projectiles when agitated enough. In other words, don't mess with this bear.

"Ooh kay, I guess you're first." Jaune said as he took a step forward. Ren and Nora were all busy facing off against the Beowolves; Glynda however prepared her wand at the same Ursa Jaune walked toward.

The Ursa looked at Jaune with the white face that emanated its red eyes and prepared its claws. Jaune sprinted forward, the Ursa brought down its right claws in an attempt to catch Jaune. It missed as he claw grazed along the grass with Jaune jumping forward her rolled forward but he was back on his feet. The Ursa didn't waste any time, so it flexed its back for three spikes to launch in Jaune's direction. He kneeled down and he prepared his shield for the spikes to graze along it or be completely stopped by it.

When the Ursa didn't hear Jaune cries of help it fired another spike for good measure. As the creature rotated its body to Jaune, his blade pierced the black fur for Jaune to be on the Ursa's back. Jaune flicked his wrist to have the sword be lightly tossed up for him to catch it with the blade downward. From the left and his right, two Beowolves were shot in the head by Pyrrha's support.

Jaune had his chance to shove the family heirloom into the skull of the creature for it to topple over. Jaune yanked the blade out then jumped off to roll forward on the grass. He stopped a mere foot away from Pyrrha.

_Where did this come from?_ Pyrrha blinked at Jaune when he raised his head. Nora and Ren finished off the last Beowulf as Ren severed the right claw and Nora smashed the skull in. Jaune reversed his blade again and sheathed it. He patted his hip which held the weapon. Jaune did a light smile to himself as he looked over his shoulder.

"I forgot to pose didn't I?" Jaune laughed at the sight of the deteriorating Ursa Major. Pyrrha looked the same Ursa, she felt some pride in her work to help Jaune improve from their training sessions.

"Come along JNPR, we have to keep a steady pace." Glynda adjusted her baseball cap as the team rallied behind her.

JNPR formed up again and continued to walk through the forest. During the walk, several skirmishes of the less devastating Grimm were killed off. Headmistress Glynda didn't have to intervene because of how Nora and Pyrrha had such an easy time dispatching them. It would be about 30 kilometers before they would reach the last known location of Blu Sampson.

Mount Glenn

The final Beowulf collapsed at the feet of Yang Xiao Long, she smirked at the sight and turned around to see Dr. Oobleck several feet away.

"They're not so tough." Yang laughed. Blake and Weiss went on ahead of Dr. Oobleck and Yang. Ruby provided over watch from a nearby building to snipe the isolated Grimm from getting too close to the team.

Dr. Oobleck observed the surrounding area. "So tell me Yang, why do you want to become a Huntress?"

Yang flexed her right arm backward for her gauntlets, Ember Celica to eject a dozen shells to the concrete street. She flicked out two new rolls of shells to reload her weapon. The shells chambered in as Yang heard the beloved _click_.

"Well, to fight monsters."

"No, no, that is what you do, I'm asking you why you do it." Oobleck cut off Yang from rambling on about the job.

Yang looked to the ground, one of the shotgun shells rolled to its left and slipped into a crevice on the street. "You want the truth?" Yang knew it was a rhetorical.

"The truth is, I'm a thrill seeker, I want to wrapped up as many crazy adventures as I can and if it helps people along the way, all the better." Yang said lightly shrugged her shoulders.

**Play the song now, I chose this one specifically for Dr. Oobleck**

"Hmm." Dr. Oobleck nodded to Yang. He didn't say anything to her as he walked off toward the direction of Weiss and Blake.

"Hey Dr. Oobleck, do you have what it takes to fight the monsters?" Yang shouted. In the distance Weiss and Blake jogged toward Yang, they had some news from the area.

"We spotted the rest of the pack of Beowolves. Ice Queen thought we should rally back here." Blake looked over her shoulder and smirked at Weiss.

"I said 'tactical regroup.'" Weiss puffed her cheeks.

"Ladies, just stand back for a moment. Yang here wants a demonstration of my abilities." Dr. Oobleck, took a sip from his drink before it extended into a staff. The hilts were green and had several rounded ends as the thing prepared for the task ahead. His weapon was named Aqua Breaker, it was finally out to play. Dr. Oobleck took hold of his explorer's hat and strapped it to his chin.

Oobleck waved toward the building to signal Ruby to cease fire. Ruby raised her head away from her scope and observed from her lookout. In the distance, a dozen Boarbatusks, Beowolves, a Deathstalker, and one King Taijitu.

"Ladies." Dr. Oobleck bowed before he zoomed off to the face the Grimm.

The first target was a Beowulf that led the pack. Dr. Oobleck leveled Aqua Breaker horizontally to the ground then blasted several balls of fire from the weapon. It didn't go straight forward but arched in an angle upward. The energy balls crashed behind the first Beowulf three others were caught in the blast. Dr. Oobleck dashed forward for his weapon still the same position in his hands and struck the Beowulf at the stomach. The Beowulf roared and prepped its claws for an attack. Dr. Oobleck twisted the handle to Aqua Breaker. The weapon spouted a blade to impale the Beowulf.

Two Beowolves made their approach on Dr. Oobleck, he raised Aqua Breaker with the Beowulf attached to it and swung it to the left to knock one of the two Beowolves from getting too close while the second one charged at him. Not before Dr. Oobleck aimed the impaled Beowulf toward the other and he twisted the handle to Aqua Breaker again. The Beowulf was blasted then coated in fire toward the other. Both Beowolves were killed and smoked at the fur.

His next target was a rolling Boarbatusks in a triangle formation. Two were on the flanks and one coming through the middle. Dr. Oobleck reversed Aqua Breaker, to strike the concrete in front of it him to break apart in large pieces. It splintered off in all directions; Dr. Oobleck twisted the end of Aqua Breaker to fire more energy into the ground for it to shake. Then when it all nicely broken, Dr. Oobleck blasted the ground again to provide leverage for a slab of rubble to ease up to make stand above the ground.

The Boarbatusks in front were shaken by the vibrations Oobleck caused. From that, he twisted Aqua Breaker to wind up for a swing. The Boarbatusks split apart by the time Oobleck swung Aqua Breaker to smash apart the slab. The Boarbatusk on the left was absorbed by the initial rubble to roll off course and smashed into a nearby building. The second dodged the rubble in time and Oobleck appeared before it with a golf swing, the Boarbatusk was launched clearly toward the third one coming in. Dr. Oobleck sidestepped the rolling charge and he reversed the swing to stop the Boarbatusk from rolling further and when it lost momentum, Dr. Oobleck smiled at the creature. He pulled Aqua Breaker back and blasted it with an energy ball.

The Beowolves were closing in with Boarbatusks providing the backup. Dr. Oobleck stepped forward and had Aqua Breaker at his shoulder. He took a deep breath and started to twist Aqua Breaker around his body and occasionally fired off energy at the Grimm. When Aqua Breaker was going fast enough, Dr. Oobleck brought it down like a sledgehammer to smash the concrete. The weapon caused a small explosion to kill several Beowolves and Boarbatusks. The Beowulf directly under the strike was atomized from the sheer heat. Dr. Oobleck twisted Aqua Breaker and brought it down again to smash the ground with a larger explosion. The initial wave of the Grimm was decimated.

Dr. Oobleck kept his pace as he horizontally slashed it to kill a Beowulf, and he raised Aqua Breaker above his head. Then when he was ready, Dr. Oobleck smashed the ground ahead of him a third and final time with an explosion larger than the previous two. The Boarbatusks were killed off and only several Beowolves remained. Dr. Oobleck took a deep breath to see a Deathstalker as his challenger and a King Taijitu as its backup.

The Deathstalker charged forward to snap its pincers at Oobleck's right and he leaned back in time to avoid it. The stinger shot downward as the King Taijitu shot several loose fangs to keep Oobleck from his counter attack. He dodged three teeth with the fourth one he deflected with Aqua Breaker. The Deathstalker charged on ahead and with a pincer to take hold of Aqua Breaker. With more teeth incoming, Dr. Oobleck reached into his back pocket while the King Taijitu angled itself at him. What he took out was an orange vial and he popped the lid and twisted Aqua Breaker again for a slot to open up. He placed the vial inside and Aqua Breaker started to vibrate. This was Dr. Oobleck's chance; he pressed the trigger for fire to spew out of Aqua Breaker. The King Taijitu fired several teeth as the area around Dr. Oobleck smoked from Aqua Breaker.

The smoke dissipated and from there, it was clear that Dr. Oobleck escaped the Deathstalker. What was different about the Deathstalker was that its left pincer was completely severed as orange fluids dripped from where the pincer once was. Dr. Oobleck smiled as he dashed forward dodged and knocked teeth out of his way and jumped with Aqua Breaker at his side for a horizontal slash. The King Taijitu's black head was severed completely in fire and the orange liquid. Dr. Oobleck turned to the Deathstalker, Aqua Breaker ready for more Grimm killing.

The special dust concoction that Dr. Oobleck used was the Lava blend he made back when he was a student. As in Aqua Breaker could swing hot lava to kill Grimm, and that was his basic travel blends. There are plenty more deadly dust combinations at home.

The King Taijitu couldn't react as the second head swung around in agony then the head clashed into the closest building.

The Deathstalker could tell it didn't stand a chance and for the first time in any of RWBY's eyes, a Deathstalker took a step back.

"There's no escape." Dr. Oobleck charged forward and jumped again to land on the center of the wounded Deathstalker then planted Aqua Breaker into the center of the body and released more of the dust blend into the body. The tail didn't move because it would basically impale itself.

After several seconds, Dr. Oobleck jumped off the Deathstalker then immediately turned around and he brought Aqua Breaker down to the center of the body. The entire thing screeched at the damage and sat the legs gave out to the weight. Dr. Oobleck smashed more rubble to make a slab stand up again. By then Dr. Oobleck pressed his back against the slab and smiled. The Deathstalker's body started to expand and by the time Dr. Oobleck brushed rubble from his shoulder. The Deathstalker imploded from the lava inside the body splashing all around the street.

He walked away from the slab toward team RWBY. He didn't bother Blake or Weiss as he passed them as he walked directly to Yang. He leaned forward.

"You're not the only one who knows how to play with fire." Dr. Oobleck lifted his head. "Well then, I think that clears out this sector shall we continue?"

Yang looked to the ground. "You had that one coming." Blake said to ease the tension. Yang nodded and looked her teammates.

"Who knew Professor Oobleck could fight?" Weiss thought out loud.

"It's DOCTOR." Oobleck said while walking down the street with his left hand in the air with his index finger out. RWBY collect themselves as they followed their Huntsman.

**The song should end now**

Emerald Forest

It has been forty five minutes with the occasional Grimm here and there to impede JNPR's progress. Pyrrha covered for Jaune as he kept close to Glynda and to watch the rest of the team's flank. It didn't come to it with Nora in a happy mode to kill some Grimm.

Pyrrha felt her shoes brush along the grass. _I guess we need to let Jaune do something._ She thought of how the Headmistress may not see Jaune as Huntsman material. Ren walked ahead of the group and noticed something the rest of them did not.

"Get down." Ren ordered. The team and the headmistress reacted as each of them took cover along the trees. Pyrrha looked up and spotted what Ren warned them about.

A Nevermore, it was difficult to judge the size of things in the sky, but Pyrrha could tell that it was quite large. If she had to guess, the Nevermore would be the same size as the one back at the initiation trial. That one was about fifteen meters in size.

The shadow loomed over the trees then a loud squawk echoed above. The team wasn't spotted and the Nevermore flew off into the distance. The Creatures of Grimm are naturally drawn to people, particularly settlements. What draw them in particular are the base emotions of angst, sadness, and hatred. Back in the Freedom Wars, more casualties on both sides were of Grimm encounters, because of the daily emotion felt by the people.

Since the Grimm can't possess souls, they cannot possess Aura which humans and Faunus have. No Aura means no Semblance. That's what separates the Grimm from the Faunus and Humans.

"Alright everyone, we're about 4 more kilometers away from the place of where Blu Sampson disappeared from." Headmistress said in her usual calm tone.

Pyrrha nodded to the order and looked out to their rear for possible dangers. Then from the corner of her eye, Jaune sprinted forward and removed something from Pyrrha's back. She could tell by force that he took her spear, Miló. Jaune pressed the button along the handle for Miló to shift from the spear to the rifle variant. It was a modified M1 Garand. Jaune fired the weapon three shots in quick succession toward the branches of a tree.

By the time Pyrrha turned around, she could clearly see a Beowulf fall from above. Then two more Beowolves sprinted out from the distance to the open. Nora kept her smile as Magnhild in the grenade launcher form blasted the Beowolves apart before they even had a chance to get close enough to attack. Jaune took aim with Miló and continued to help as Ren fired off his twin machine pistols StormFlower. Pyrrha stood alongside Glynda with her shield, Akoŭo drawn.

The Beowolves were killed off in a matter of seconds. Pyrrha watched as Jaune exhaled slowly and blinked his eyes rapidly. He just realized he took Pyrrha's weapon Miló away from her. Pyrrha could tell as he expression went from focused to withdrawn. He held Miló carefully as he looked to the ground as he walked back to Pyrrha.

"I'm sorry. I just saw some Beowolves and I… just… reacted." Jaune handed Miló to Pyrrha.

That wasn't the pressing concern that appeared in Pyrrha's mind. _What am I doing wrong!?_ "It's okay, Jaune. Grimm is a part of the job." She said by reflex while she screamed in her mind.

Jaune looked up and was glad to know that she understood. His shoulders eased up as Jaune looked around for more danger.

"Very well, glad to know you've improved Mr. Arc, come now, Mr. Sampson needs us." Glynda said as she walked by to be alongside Ren and Nora. Before Jaune took a step, Pyrrha spoke.

"Hey Jaune. Where did you learn to shoot a gun? Back when we did all of our training, I thought we could get to that later." Pyrrha needed to hear the answer.

"Oh that? Well, Wolfe taught me how to use a gun. I don't really remember when, but we sometimes went to the shooting range and practice. Daniel and Jack will show me a couple of tricks as well." Jaune smiled as he turned around to walk with the team, Pyrrha followed as her expression waned when Jaune looked away.

_He smiled again… Where did this come from? Is it me? No, it can't be. All we did was swordplay and shield techniques._ Pyrrha recalled how Jaune smiled as he would talk about the other team.

…

…_JAWS…_ Pyrrha concluded in her mind as she clenched a fist with Miló. For the first time in a long time, Pyrrha felt angry.

Mount Glenn

Blake edged closer to a door to building as part of RWBY's sweep of the ruined city. She wanted to see if there was any danger inside. It looks like anything above the second floor collapsed, all the cement and jagged rocks blanketed above. The perfect place for a Nevermore hideout. Blake stood at the door and opened it slowly. When it was ajar, seven Nevermores sprawled out like a pack of frightened bats. Blake back flipped the as she pulled Gambol Shroud. A pistol variant hunter's weapon. Nine bullets were ejected into the air. Blake ejected the spent clip as seven small Nevermores rained down to the street, dead.

She looked into the space inside the building and found that it just a single room. The doorway out of the room was blocked by rubble. In the corner, were three skeletons. Two adults with one child. The three of them were huddled together; the adults angled themselves on the floor to have the child between them. In the child's fingers, was a decayed doll? It was stitched together by rags, or could have been a fine material. It was too old to tell accurately. Blake holstered Gambol Shroud. Blake didn't get closer to them. What caught Blake's eye, were the teeth of one of the adults. It had four clear canines, longer that what a human can have. The couple here was of a mixed couple. A Faunus and Human had a child and died together while Mount Glenn was abandoned by the Valean government. She looked away and didn't feel like disturbing the tomb any further. She walked out of the building as Dr. Oobleck waited for her.

"I've already spoken to Weiss and Yang of why they wanted to become a huntress. I believe it is time for me to ask you about it. So Blake, why do you want to become a huntress? You seem to carry yourself with a sense of purpose. Tell it to me straight." Dr. Oobleck's glasses hide his eyes from her view and it made it harder for Blake to give him a calm answer.

"To stop the world from destroying itself. Faunus and Humans, we all have the common enemy of the Grimm yet that's not enough. The Faunus bleed red like humans and we have souls like humans, yet there are those who wish to say that there's still a dividing line between the two." Blake looked the doorway of the building. "There is too much wrong in this world to stand by and do nothing. Inequality, Corruption? Someone has to stop it."

Dr. Oobleck rubbed his chin. "I take you wish to be that someone?"

That was the question Blake waited for. "If it has to be."

"Very well, how?" He wanted to make a point clear to her.

"How what?"

"How will help against corruption and inequality?"

Blake was ready to speak, then nothing came to her. She looked at Dr. Oobleck and after a moment of silence, she looked away. That was what he needed.

"Hmm." He pushed his glasses slightly up from the bridge of his nose.

"I don't know. I thought I used to know the answer, but… now I'm not sure." Blake looked back at Dr. Oobleck. "I'm still searching for the answer."

"It makes my heart sing that you haven't given up." Dr. Oobleck smiled.

That took Blake by surprise. "What do you mean?"

"To know that there's still some within the new generation that have the will to improve the world. You haven't given up. While I have."

"What do you mean Doctor?" Blake asked as he walked forward and beckoned her to follow.

"Look around, what do you see Blake?" He asked.

"A series of buildings and the biggest failed expansion of Vale." Blake spent her life researching history.

"It is indeed tragic but I wouldn't say it's the worse. But in my case it is." Dr. Oobleck replied.

"Can you please elaborate?"

"I see the lives of people who could have been saved. I thought I knew everything, but I'm still learning to the best of my ability every day."

"I still don't understand." Blake shrugged.

"Mount Glenn, is my biggest failure Blake." Dr. Oobleck's glasses reflected the image of the once prospering community. Families that had hopes to make something worthwhile. "For you see Blake, you're talking to the very Hunter that ordered Mount Glenn to be sealed off."

Blake was at a loss of words.

"I was one of seven Huntsmen that were posted her decades ago. When the Grimm did their assault. We held off the Grimm for five hours. By that time, two of us were killed, three wounded and it was just me and one other. We evacuated all that we could. But it would put the Vale in further risk. I ordered the soldiers posted here to use their weapons to cut off all exits." Dr. Oobleck looked back at Blake. "There was a secret court order on me. The Council made my doctorate completely useless to where I would apply myself. It was then that Ozpin offered me a way out of the paradox."

Blake continued to listen to him.

"I made it then my duty to teach the new generations the best I can to those who wish to learn." Dr. Oobleck looked at Blake. The glare disappeared as she could see his eyes now.

"Is that why you're telling me this now?" Blake wanted to clarify for herself.

"It is better to hear of my failure and to learn from my mistakes Blake. Then you having to make it and regretting it. You're a very intelligent girl, I have faith that you will find your answer." Dr. Oobleck patted her shoulder.

"Thank you, Doctor."

"Anytime Blake. Come now, we have to regroup with your team, we have about four hours before sunset." Dr. Oobleck said as Blake followed him back to RBY. They still needed to cover more ground before sunset. Yang grew unusually quiet while Ruby and Weiss bickered about something trivial. Dr. Oobleck knew that each of them has something to learn to become true huntresses.

Emerald Forest

Team JNPR and Glynda walked for three hours and endured wave upon wave of Grimm. Of all of them, Ren was the one who was noticeably waning into exhaustion. Nora and Pyrrha kept the same speed to fight the Grimm. Jaune did the same killed several Grimm before they could reach Glynda.

The team continued to walk. Pyrrha completely gave the Grimm no quarter in her fights with them. A Boarbatusk, Pyrrha tossed Miló into the forehead to wound it. She walked to it and took hold of her weapon, without a second thought, twisted the hand for the bladed end of the spear have the Grimm suffer. The legs wiggled from the fore as Pyrrha twisted and twisted the handle until a large hole would be in place before she finally killed it.

Three Ursa Majors appeared from the tree line. Pyrrha provided Nora some back up while Ren handled the beowolves. Five charged ahead and StormFlower fired a dozen shots, six rounds both.

A bullet struck the center of the body of the lead Beowulf. It jerked back slightly but continued its speed. The second and third bullet struck the chest and the left shoulder. Ren concentrated his fire for the other nine bullets to finish off the Beowulf, which was killed on the twelfth bullet. Ren back flipped and reloaded StormFlower. One stuck behind to fight Ren while the other three charged forward.

Jaune had his shield braced for a claw and set his arms for the sword to do thrust attacks. Glynda had her all powerful magic wand at the ready. Something completely odd happened. The three beowolves complexly ignored the two of them and charged to Nora and Pyrrha, which were the furthest away. Pyrrha turned around and smiled at the opposition after Jaune shouted at them.

She set Miló on high as Akoŭo was tossed forward. She sprinted after it while Nora fought the last Ursa Major. She smashed the left paw then aimed for the hip and from the sound of it; she severed the spine of the Ursa in the hit. It toppled over and Nora raised Magnhild high then it caved in on skull. It left a rather large hole instead of a face. Nora looked back to regroup.

The shield struck the second Beowulf while the other three pressed onward. Pyrrha jumped forward giving time for Miló time to shift into the gun variant. Bullets flew and by chance. One bullet soared through the air; it glided over, and introduced itself to a Beowulf's eye. It stopped completely then toppled over but shook its head and continued to run. By then, Pyrrha was left in the open. Her teammates can't respond to help her in time.

One Beowulf jumped forward, claws and fangs at the ready for the flesh of Pyrrha. It closed its jaw to be met with nothing. Pyrrha was completely pulled back by an invisible force and the Beowulf was knocked out the way to crash into another. Nora jogged in ahead to catch Pyrrha. She helped her on her feet and the two looked forward.

One of the Beowolves was lifted into the air and with a flick of Glynda's wand, the Beowulf was cast aside. It roared at them as the upper body of it struck a tree. With a pointed branch, the Beowulf was completely impaled and died after several seconds. Glynda turned her head as the sun reflected off her glasses as the other two continue their charge. Glynda flicker wand again and the first Beowulf was picked into the air then sent full force into the other one. She angled the held Beowulf so its crimson fangs were exposed. She forced the Beowulf to slice the throat of the second one. The final Beowulf was taken care of by Nora. It's a good thing that the Grimm is self-cleaning, because if the one Nora fought, it could be nothing but a pile of red paste on the grass.

Ren and Jaune jogged in to regroup with the them.

"Wow, Headmistress, was it that easy back when you were training?" Jaune said to break the silence.

"No, this is me at my best and I didn't have much control back then. Come now, Mr. Sampson could be nearby." Glynda cut the conversation short. Before the team took formation again, Glynda spoke.

"We need to cycle each of you out. Jaune, Nora, you to lead. Ren you guard the flank. And you Pyrrha, you're on reserve for now." Without a word of the team they spaced themselves out as she ordered.

"That was very impressive, Headmistress." Pyrrha commented as Miló stayed in rifle form. It was a tactical decision so she could be at the ready to help at the distance.

Glynda didn't respond to the compliment. She looked into Pyrrha's eyes. "Thank you. Now Miss Nikos, what's bothering you?"

Mount Glenn.

So far Team RWBY searched Mount Glenn for some kind sign of the White Fang. RWBY learned about this when the team did some recon in the city one night. (Back when the Payday Gang raided the Tasteful Nightclub.) In Vale, Blake and Sun snuck into a White Fang recruitment rally and there they found Roman Torchwick. Who was there to help in recruitment and to offer crates upon crates of weapons to the give to the Valean branch. Blake and Sun had to escape the White Fang hideout. Yang and Neptune provided back up while Yang had to interrogate Junior at the nightclub. Something big is going to happen in Vale. RWBY wanted to know what it is an stop it.

It was about one hour until sunset. Dr. Oobleck had Blake, Yang, and Weiss set up camp inside a three story building to have a view of incoming dangers.

"Did Dr. Oobleck ask you two of why you want to be Huntresses?" Blake asked as she opened Oobleck's packed bag which was filled to the brim of survival gear. Blake took out three bed rolls and passed them out.

"Yeah. I told him, the reason why I wanted to be a huntress… was because it's my duty. The Schnee family name has a reputation to uphold." Weiss gave the very short answer to the question.

"Do you really think that's a worthwhile reason?" Yang asked.

"I don't know. I just, I'm doing it to save the future of the family." Weiss clearly didn't want to go into detail.

"I guess." Yang responded. Team RWBY continued to do set up the camp in with several bits of firewood that Dr. Oobleck somehow packed into his bag. How was he able to carry it and fight with it earlier is beyond them.

Below Mount Glenn

"What are they doing?" A voice asked as a set of eyes stared at a monitor.

"Just making a camp and judging by their strategy, they're here to kill the Grimm." A second voice replied. "I already ordered the others not to do any patrols tonight. It doesn't seem like they know our location."

"Fine, just keep them on the cameras and let me know if anything changes." The first voice ordered as he walked out of the room.

"Got it." The second voice replied. Among the rubble, were several cameras in the ruins of Mount Glenn. There were many close calls on the Huntresses and Hunter to find them. Though, that Grimm wave the adult fought had the one Red Huntresses distracted long enough for the cameras to adjust themselves back into their hiding. The cameras are adjustable to move out from cover.

The watcher leaned back to continue his observance of them. On his back, was the a of a fierce looking slash on the back. It was red while on the front showed a paw of a wolf. The paw was black but the claws however, appeared silver.

The Huntresses talked about something but the watcher couldn't listen in because sound equipment would be too easy to spot. They appeared to be settling in to their camp. The Adult and the Red Huntress returned after observing the migrant Ganesha herd. (The Elephant looking Grimm)The Red one waved her hand about as she looked to be volunteering herself for something. The watcher kicked his legs up on his table.

Emerald Forest

Jaune and Nora walked ahead and the both of them talked about how the cafeteria doesn't serve enough pancakes in the morning. Well, it was just Nora rambled about it and Jaune pretended to listen. All thanks to the training of his sisters. Ren walked in silence as he was more concerned about the possibility of more Grimm to appear.

Glynda and Pyrrha had their time alone to talk.

"Can you tell me what's bothering you now? You can't avoid this." Glynda pressed on.

"I told you Headmistress, it's nothing."

"Miss Nikos, the only time when the Grimm ignore close targets is when a person is full of so much distress, they become the primary target of the Grimm. It watched that happen four times today." Glynda gave a tip within her observation; hopefully it'll ease Pyrrha in to talk.

Pyrrha finally took a deep breath. She looked up at Glynda. "I'm jealous of how Jaune will be with JAWS more so than JNPR."

"Is that something to be truly upset about?" Glynda knew it was a real reason, but having the other person will willing talk about the problem made it easier for Glynda to help solve it.

"Well it does." Pyrrha said that as calmly as she could. "I grew up always doing my best to be a good huntress before the official training started at Beacon. People didn't feel worthy to just talk to me. I was always alone except for my parents. But here comes this one other person, who doesn't see my reputation, and wanted to be my friend. As it turns out, he's probably my best friend." Pyrrha looked out along the trees as they continued along the path.

"It's because of how team JAWS was formed, isn't it?"

"It is!" Pyrrha said as softly as she could. Jaune and Nora didn't notice. "I don't want to lose Jaune to a bunch of friendship pirates." Pyrrha closed her lips at the end of the sentence to hide the sight of her grinding her teeth.

"I was always alone before he came along. People avoided me and no one took the time to get to know me… I despise the idea… of being alone again. Ren and Nora have each other, and so does everyone else. I know I'm acting selfish, but I do think as a people, we have the right to be selfish at times. I've could have taught Jaune how to use firearms. I've been there to help him improve with his sword play. Not JAWS, me." Pyrrha kept her eyes forward so she could drop the conversation at a moment's notice if Nora or Jaune look back.

"You just can't have him be at you beck and call every single day. With JAWS, Pyrrha, I was there before Ozpin decided to make the team official. Daniel, Jack, and Tomas all have their own problems to deal with. The person that helped each of them, was Jaune. You can't prevent him from being himself. Otherwise Pyrrha, you won't act the way a partner should."

Pyrrha looked at Glynda.

"You choose Jaune as a partner back at the initiation. He'll be there for you no matter what. That is how he is. This whole thing about you being worried, is just you fearing change. The only way for you to understand Pyrrha, is by being there for him as much as he is for you. You've got to look at it from JAWS perspective."

"How?"

"Just today, before when I reentered the auditorium. I noticed JAWS leave without Jaune. I asked them if they were excited for their first mission. Did you know what they said? Daniel was the one to mention of how they're choosing to wait."

"Why?"

"Because Miss Nikos, they wanted Jaune to be with JNPR. They wanted him to do a mission with you. They don't want to have Jaune completely to themselves. They understand he has to be there for JNPR. Tomas mentioned how you are his teammates and are just as important. Now Miss Nikos, what's the problem?"

Pyrrha looked away from Glynda.

"… I'm making this worse than it should be, aren't I?" Pyrrha responded. She loosened her grip on Miló.

"You're a good person Pyrrha. This is just like how you said, Jaune is your first real friend. So I would understand if you feel threatened by other people, but you have to remember, his isn't meant to be here for you and you alone. Give him a little space, it'll do the both of you some good." Glynda looked ahead. There wasn't any sign of incoming Grimm. "Do you understand? Try to be there for him and he'll return the thought in kind."

"I understand… but I'm still a bit jealous though." Pyrrha spoke the truth.

"All you have to do is apply it, okay?"

"Yes Headmistress." Pyrrha felt herself calm down. _I'm still mad at how he smiles all the time._ _But Glynda is right, I have to try… I guess I can't be good at everything._ Pyrrha shrugged.

"Hold up people!" Nora shouted. Glynda, Pyrrha, and Ren took hold of their weapons. Nora waved her arms to signal them to come to her. Jaune was the first to walk to her and his eyes widened at what she wanted him to see. Glynda and Pyrrha jogged to the site. There was a cart with empty boxes around the site.

There. In the grass was a body. Sadly, he wasn't alive. His upper body had a series of claw marks, and his right arm was missing. From the how the wound was shaped, it looked like a Beowulf must have bitten it off with its fangs. His torso wasn't attached to his body. The legs were several feet away, the entrails were pulled out from the stomach and were feasted upon. From how he body was decomposed, it aligns of how long Blu Sampson was away from home. His next of kin will be informed of his fate. Glynda turned around to see if her scroll can get service. Which surprisingly, it could. She signaled the Airship pilot of their location.

Jaune walked away from the body as he rubbed his forehead. Nora and Ren looked a Blu blankly and didn't show much response to it. Pyrrha took one step toward him.

"Hello? Is there anybody there?" A voice called out. Ren turned his head at the trader's cart. He walked to it and tapped the top.

"Hello?" The voice called again.

"This is Team JNPR from Beacon Academy, identify yourself." Glynda spoke toward the trader's cart. With the cart move around like a box. The bottom released its compartment for a person to fall out.

"Hunters? Oh thank dust!" The person leaned back. He looked upward to see Ren offer him a hand. Just by his appearance, he clearly wasn't Blu Sampson.

"Who are you?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well pretty lady. I'm David Duckman." The young man answered as he brushed himself off of dirt. "I'm Mr. Sampson's hired help." He looked at the body. "Well, I was."

"What happened?" Glynda asked. Nora and Ren both took it upon themselves to keep an eye out for danger.

"Mr. Sampson and I were on our way to make a delivery as part of an agreement. Grimm showed up and we were able to avoid them for a time. When we got cornered here, Mr. Sampson ordered me to hide in the cart. I did and I've been in the cart for since, eating and using the goods we had. He was a brave man. I hope his sister will okay."

"Sister?"

"Yeah sister. She lives in Vale. I'll let her know what happened."

Jaune collected himself from the view of the body. He walked back. Team JNPR made a defensive perimeter around the site until the airship arrived. Glynda was rather impressed on how Team JNPR handled themselves today, except for Pyrrha's outbursts. The airship arrived and the team used a body bag to get Mr. Sampson on board. The mission was carried out and Glynda had to accept it as well. This is just part of the job at being a Huntress and Hunter. The ride back was rather quiet. Each member spaced themselves out.

"All of you did well today. You fought the Grimm without fear. I hope this will just be lesson of the job. It won't always be like this. Just remember that JNPR." Glynda said as she removed her baseball cap. She looked back and Jaune appeared to ease up, the same with Pyrrha. Nora and Ren were fine from basic observation.

The journey back to Vale lightened up after that. Pyrrha's expression went to stern often since her talk with the Headmistress. _I'll just have to try at what she suggested._

"Pyrrha?" Jaune called her. She turned her head.

"Sorry about using your weapon. I guess I made you rather upset today." He shrugged.

"No no, that wasn't it. I was just overly anxious about the mission and didn't want to worry you."

"Oh okay."

"It's okay Jaune. I was scared too." Pyrrha added.

"You get scared?" Jaune asked.

"Of course, fear is just part of being human. It's an impulse of self-preservation. But it takes courage to be here."

"Okay, I think I understand." Jaune nodded. "Well, if you're okay. I guess I can be so as well. Thanks for putting up with me this whole time?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just been a clutz since we met. You don't need this from me. I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about Jaune. You're a good leader and you're improving with everything that you do. I'm happy to know someone like you is my partner at Beacon." She nodded to him.

"Thank you, Pyrrha. And you too Ren. Nora." Jaune smiled. What struck Pyrrha differently, was how Jaune smiled the same way when he talked about JAWS. Here he was, giving the same admiration for JNPR.

Pyrrha looked at Glynda. At her hip, Glynda gave a barely noticeable thumbs up. Pyrrha looked back at Nora, she started talking about how awesome each of them were in the field_. Maybe, I'm being too hard on JAWS_. Pyrrha concluded as she leaned forward to join the conversation.

**Hey there everyone. Thank you for reading this chapter. I'll be honest, I was very hard on myself writing this. I just can't help but feel like I could have written this chapter better. This version is of what I can accept from myself. Did you like Dr. Oobleck's moment? RWBY's mission, Pyrrha's situation? Please tell me how you feel about it in a review. Just a heads up, JAWS' mission is in the next chapter, I hope you're excited.**

**Please check out "**Crocea Conquerors**" If you haven't already.**

**Thank you very much for reading.**

**Iandude: **Thank you for reading. JAWS mission is next.

**Guest: **Vlad is awesome in the game. And surprisingly, he was fun to write for in the last chapter. Have an excellent day.

**Ghost-407:** Thank you for liking Vlad. Who knows how the Meltdown will go down? Thank you for reading.

**Drow79:** Awesome, I wasn't sure how people would have responded that. Have a great day.

**Lukefang: **Thank you. We'll talk about in the PMs.

**CrimsonHeresy:** Thank for liking how the chapter came out. I was very hard on myself about it. Glynda would be an awesome Teacher to follow in the story. Any team would feel lucky to have her. I did the Blake mention as a last minute edit before I posted it. I'm glad people liked it. The various factions of law enforcement is a bit a challenge for me, but still fun to tackle. Yeah, Gideon is a special case of jerk. Vlad was pretty easy to write for. I mean, I think that guy is cool but I wouldn't want to be near him in real life. About him being the Animal lover? Well learn more about it as time goes on.

**GhostRipperD31H:** Thank you for reading the story. The trailers to Payday 2 is what convinced me to buy and experience the game. Everything in this story is what makes is so much fun for me. Yeah, I was a bit of an evil jerk about what happened to Daniel. We'll learn more about the crew as time moves on. I promise you. The future is uncertain for the Payday Gang. I'm being pompous about it, but I just don't want to spoil it for you. About the pairings. I'm sorry but I can't say anything about it for the sake of spoilers. Sorry. Thank you again for reading and have a most awesome day


	24. Chapter 24, JAWS' mission

**Wow, the Golden Grin Casino is awesome! The song for this chapter will be "**Don't Stop Me Now**" by Queen. Let's continue.**

**Song Link: ** watch?v=0jNyyy6BDVY

The airship glided along the evening air. Several hours earlier, the group aboard dropped off David Duckman at the closest village for him to safely return to the Sampson family. The remains of Blu were taken by members of a local tribe. So the journey back went well enough. Jaune was obviously shaken up by it by how he looked to be barely interested in what Nora had to say. _Since when was that new?_ Glynda mentally rolled her eyes at herself.

Since their talk, Pyrrha eased the tension on her shoulders while her face looked to be less aggressive back when the team fought the Grimm. _I need to keep an eye on her_. Glynda concluded as she looked back at her clipboard.

On it was a list of strengths and weaknesses of team JNPR. It was all secret information for the instructors to learn and use toward helping the team as time will go on. Dr. Oobleck writes the most thorough reports, but the results speak in the end of the accomplished students in the past. She spent the rest of the journey to refine her notes.

The airship journey went on and took several hours before they reached Beacon. Nora fell asleep and she used Mignhild to help keep her body angled upward. Jaune lay on his back and used his hood as a pillow to s. Pyrrha continued to look out the window while Ren brought a nice book to read while on the journey.

It was a mystery series that Ren liked to read. Blake may have her hobby, but Ren loved mystery stories. There was intrigue, despair, and motives that existed in his favorite books series. Swordsman of Amber: the Darkwatch Chronicles. There were 49 books in all and in every five books marked a new overall story arc. It was meaty and interesting. It didn't take Ren long to get hooked. He doesn't like it when people ruin the experience. Much like how RWBY did when they would talk obnoxiously as possible in the school library. It happened more often than it should. So Ren took time to enjoy himself with flipping a page to start his new book, fresh from the store. So he got to enjoy 4 uninterrupted hours of reading until the airship reached Beacon.

The airship landed and Glynda was the one to wake Jaune. Ren warned Glynda not to wake up Nora. When Jaune was awake, he rolled to his side, shook his head, and pushed himself up use his knee to support himself to stand up. He looked to his left to see Nora on Ren's back as he started to carry her off back to the dorm. Ren didn't look the least bit uncomfortable, as he took dozens of deep breaths to support Nora's weight. Pyrrha chuckled at them as she followed them.

"Jaune?" Glynda called out before he walked to join them.

"Yes Headmistress?" Jaune yawned then fanned his mouth.

"Listen Jaune, I know this mission was a harsh one by the outcome, but it's just the first one, don't let this discourage you. We still have two weeks before classes continue again, so if you need to take it easy, JAWS will understand."

"Thank you, Headmistress. But with the guys, we've been excited to do something like this. I'll manage." Jaune replied politely.

_Odd, is he really this calm? He must have a lot of faith in JAWS._ Glynda nodded to excuse Jaune. He turned around and walked with his team back to the dorms. It was early in the morning with four hours until sunrise.

Pyrrha was the one to open the door and the team poured in and each of them fell into their beds. Ren dropped Nora in her bed then went to his.

The morning sun shined brightly with the birds singing outside. Several windows reflected the glow and several students walked about. It was a lovely morning for Nora to close the blinds and walk back to her bed.

"Thanks Nora." Jaune said groggily then pulled a blanket over his shoulder.

Five Hours later

The morning passed and it was now the early afternoon. Ren read the final sentence to his book and with a content sigh, he closed his book. The Darkwatch Chronicles is finally over. Not even a minute later, Nora's head rose from her bed.

"Good morning everybody." Nora looked around in the darkness. If this was a horror movie, this is usually the moment before the jump scare.

"It's the afternoon Nora." Ren replied.

"Good afternoon everybody." Nora hopped out of her bed and walked to the kitchen to get something to eat. Jaune rolled to his side to see half the team awake, so he thought it was time to wake as well.

He got out of bed and looked at Nora. She turned around with a piece of bread in her mouth but she dropped it by snickering at Jaune. He walked into the bathroom to see his lopsided hair. He looked like he was about to attend a punk rock concert. Pyrrha stuck her head in through the door to get a laugh of what Nora incoherently rambled about while laughing.

Jaune sighed then washed his hair to level it out. It took several tries, but manageable bed hair is better than crazy bed hair. Jaune shook his head at himself as he started to brush his teeth.

"So Jaune, are you going to see JAWS today?" Nora stuck her head through the door with a devious smile.

"Maybe, I didn't get any messages from them." Jaune answered with tooth paste on his lips. Before he continued, he spat out half of the paste. "I'm planning to meet them later today."

Pyrrha opened her mouth to say something, but hesitated and close her lips. She didn't feel that she needed to make the effort.

Jaune walked out of the bathroom. "What do you have planned today Ren?"

As Ren opened his mouth, Nora jumped in front of Jaune and spoke over Ren. "We're planning on visiting the diner down in the city. Just 263 days until free pancake day, so I have to be prepared when it happens."

"Is pancakes all you think about?" Jaune noticed he should have asked this question a long time ago.

…

Nora stared at the ceiling.

…

… …

… … …

"Nora?" Jaune called her.

Nora shook her head. "Huh, what didja say? Don't bother; I wasn't paying attention, since my mind was of pancakes."

"Great." Jaune smiled. He looked over Nora's shoulder. "Um, Pyrrha when I go see JAWS today, do you want to tag along? I mean, if you don't have anything to do today." He shrugged at the end.

"Huh." Pyrrha blinked.

"Want to tag along with me when I go see JAWS?"

Pyrrha looked back at him as she was still in her pajamas. There wasn't much to think about. "Thanks Jaune, but I think I'll pass."

"Okay." Jaune accepted Pyrrha's decision. He thought about how she might feel about how he had to see JAWS as much as JNPR. Pyrrha had a calm expression.

From there, Jaune got dressed. It didn't take long for the two of them in less than thirty minutes to do so. While that happened, Jaune messaged Daniel and Wolfe to see if they could meet them. By the time Jaune was ready, Daniel texted Jaune back.

Yeah, let's meet up. I'm at Club Errera. I'll wait there for you.-Daniel.

Great, see you there.-Jaune.

Jaune walked out of the dorms and down the to the public airship station. He waited twenty minutes of just standing around the public bench. It would be another ten before the next airship should arrive. He waited until the airship arrived. He boarded it when it arrived and it took twelve minutes until it reached his desired airship station. It was the one that was located in the middle of the city. He walked off the airship.

Jaune walked through the streets to see the various people doing their daily lives. Jaune noticed a military display of the new Atlesian Knights over the AK models. The citizens just watched blindly and accepted what the Atlas government told them. Jaune didn't pay much attention as he walked through the street. Jaune walked six city blocks until he reached Club Errera.

From the street he could hear the muffled sound of music from below.

"Hey Jaune, over here." Daniel waved out so Jaune could see him from the entrance. It was the late afternoon by then so the place had several customers all spread out the place. Half the people there were Faunus and everyone minded their own business. There was a small band of players on the stage.

"Glad you could make it." Daniel spoke loud enough over the music.

"No problem. Where are the guys?" Jaune asked while he pulled out his chair.

"They're on their way." Daniel looked back toward the stage. "Lovely song isn't it?"

"So how'd go yesterday on the move?"

"Not bad. Wolfe and Jack helped me move all the easy stuff. The furniture is in and we've just have to get my clothes out of the room, so after that, I'm all set." Daniel leaned back at took a sip of his drink.

The group sat in silence as they listened to music. It was rather nice and soothing for Jaune to watch the band on the stage. Each of them looked to be in their late teens or early twenties. One of them in particular, was having a grand old time on her bass guitar. She smiled in the light and her fingers glided along the strings.

Her hair was of a jet black and was blasted back from what looked to be hastily done. Her hair looked to glide together from the natural oil of the head. Her eyes were of an ocean blue her complexion was not pale or tan.

The drummer was the same way and he kept a rapid pace on how much he probably loved the song. His hair was tied back into a Mohawk… and was that Russell? From team CRDL? It is, Jaune didn't recognize him because of how he wasn't wearing any dark green clothes. He wore a bright orange t-shirt with black pants. From the amount of water that flips in the air, Russell gave his all. The song continued with the same momentum those two emitted of their passion.

"Did the mission go well?" Daniel asked.

"It went okay… we just didn't make in time." Jaune trailed off and gave a meager smile.

"I'm sorry." Daniel said before taking a sip of his drink. Jaune looked at Daniel and nodded at him.

"Did you talk to the guys to see what kind of mission you've had in mind?" Jaune asked.

"Wolfe wants to do search and destroy, Jack wants to do a guardian patrol, and I don't have any preferences." Daniel shrugged. "None of us really went anywhere with it so we left it alone."

They looked back toward the band.

"Oh yeah, Jack finished modifying his hunting weapon. So he's pretty excited to put it into action." Daniel mentioned.

From the main entrance, Jack and Wolfe walked in to the dim light to be seen by Jaune. He tapped Daniel's arm which caused him to spot his teammates. He stood up and waved at them. The bassist in the band slipped up on a string but quickly adjusted herself. Jack noticed Daniel then the two walked through the pathways.

"Waiting long?" Wolfe asked to get a conversation started.

"Not really."

Jack and Wolfe took their seats on the table. Jaune waved down a waiter so they could order their drinks. Each of them made their choice while Jack used his index finger to order his drink from the menu. It was the same drink he had from last time. From the way Jack licked his lips, he was excited.

"How's the music tonight?" Wolfe asked as he took of his coat to lean back on his chair.

"Great actually, I think the band is about to finish up in a bit." Daniel looked at Jack.

Jaune looked at the band. While Jaune was distracted, Daniel frantically moved his head to lean in for only Wolfe and Jack to hear and whispered to them. The both of them understood and accepted Daniel's orders.

Wolfe looked around to notice that there wasn't anyone close enough to their table. It was safe enough to talk.

"Oh yeah, here you go Jaune." Wolf put something on the table. Jaune looked at it; the object was the scroll that had all the underworld contacts on it. Jaune took hold of it and placed it in his pocket.

"Yeah, I didn't want to hold onto for long." Wolfe added.

"Thanks."

"Yeah… about that." Wolfe looked at Jacket.

Jacket looked at Daniel. The funny thing about being a mute is how you can have others talk on your behalf. Each of them remained quiet as a waiter passed out their orders. Jack nodded to the waiter and eagerly took his several orders of chĭl chin. They waited to continue until the waiter wasn't in range to hear them.

"Look, last night, there was a call on the scroll. A man named Vlad wanted to talk to us."

"Vlad? Never heard of the guy."

"He's a local gangster that operates in the slums of Vale, his enforcement is rather small compared to the various syndicates but he has the most connections in the city. I called Bain and he explained it to me." Daniel responded.

"Vlad wants to hire us for a job of 250,000 lien." Before Jaune could ask about it, Daniel continued. "He wants us to break into the First World Remnant Bank. But the score isn't the money he wants. He wants us to break into a lock box which has a specific item for us to steal. The Bank heist itself will play as a smokescreen for what we're supposed to get in the lock box. The timeline is for us to do the job within the next two weeks."

"Did he say what was in the lock box?" Jaune asked.

"No, we're strangers and according to Vlad, he only trusts strangers." Daniel said as he took a sip of his drink. Wolfe and Jack kept an eye out around them and they were still in the clear.

"Great. So what happened?"

"Yeah… about that." Wolfe rubbed the back of his neck.

"Wolfe accepted the job accidentally." Daniel finished for him.

Jaune looked at Wolfe. "I'm not going to say anything about it."

"Jack already took the time to get back at him. I don't feel like talking about it." Daniel chuckled.

"Well, we can still refuse the job." Jaune put his hand on his chin.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Wolfe deadpanned. "Look, we need to have our own network in Vale. You said so yourself Jaune. Think of Crime Net, if we do this, we could have better access to what happening behind the scenes in the city. Who knows what we'll find out?"

Jacket looked back toward the group and did a light nod Wolfe to show he agreed with him.

Jaune looked back at the table.

_We could figure a lot of potential information… what will become of us if we continue? _Jaune looked back at them. "I'm not sure about this."

"It's still new to us, but look. We were able to topple the Commissar and who knows what other dangers we could prevent. Just think about it, okay Jaune?" Wolfe ended his argument.

It was rather fair on what Wolfe said about being able to expand Crime Net. Deep down, Jaune didn't know that the answer right away. He closed his eyes and took a drink of his chĭl chin. "I'll think about it."

Wolfe accepted the answer.

"Oh yeah. Jack wants to do a Search and Destroy mission." Daniel spoke on his behalf.

"I need to blow off some steam. Yeah, lets it do it." Jaune accepted the thought. It just out of the gate in the conversation but Jaune was glad to talk about it. Tomorrow morning, Jaune will place JAWS in the registry to apply themselves for the mission.

"Fine by me on at least we do something." Wolfe placed his hand on his chin.

It looked like the band was about ready to finish up.

One of the band members walked up to the stage. "Thank you for having us. We're on a quick break and we'll be back in half an hour." The band member smiled as he walked back to his seat to pack his instrument and equipment.

Jaune looked back at his team to notice that Daniel didn't look back at the table. Instead he watched as the band cleaned up.

"Are you moved in to Wolfe's place?" Jaune asked.

"Almost, just have to get clothes." Daniel said to Jaune.

"Hey there you blue moron." A feminine voice called out from behind Jaune. He raised his head with a slight frown on his face. Someone calling out a member of his team, that's a big no no.

"Whatever. Nice job out there tonight." Daniel retorted.

Jaune turned his head fully to see the bassist from the stage stand near their table. Her instrument was packed up in its case. She looked a lot younger than what the lighting of the stage showed. Also on the right side at the bridge of her nose, he had a silver nose piercing. Jaune couldn't recall why he didn't spot it earlier.

"Oh sorry, this is Aoife Reverie. She's a student at Vale, a freshmen like us." Daniel did a light gesture to his team.

"How do you do, cocksuckers?" Aoife smiled. This was a the first time that Jaune was greeted and insulted at the same time. It must have been the same for Jacket as he was confused as well.

Jaune waved at her, so did Wolfe and Jack took the time to stand up and shake her hand.

"Wow, wasn't expecting that." Aoife smiled as Jack returned to his seat.

"I noticed that you got tangled up on several strings in the middle of the song." Daniel said in a calm manner.

"Oi, well fuck you. But yeah, I did get lost on having to move in constant pace with all those other players." Aoife did a light shrug at her expense. "So you're the new team Dan told me about. I saw you at the sparring match several weeks ago." Aoife said to Jaune. "Cool work."

"You killed some serious Grimm in your trial last week." Aoife said to Jack.

"I don't know much about you, so don't be offended when I tell you to fuck off." Aoife said to Wolfe.

"Hey you hardheaded bitch, the name's Wolfe and if you don't want us to fight every time you see me, you need to shape up. There's a thing called mutual respect." Wolfe said with self-ensured confidence.

Aoife laughed. "So he has a spine after all. Looks like you have good mates in this team. Good for you Dan." She patted Daniel's shoulder. It would be demeaning to some, but Daniel had a calm expression about it.

"Well I got to go; I promised Bonnie I'd meet her for dinner. See you later Dan." Aoife said as she walked around the table.

"See ya later." Daniel did a light wave. Aoife walked by the front desk and dropped some coins in the tip jar. She walked up the steps to leave the Club.

Jack and Wolfe looked at each other then back to Jaune. The three of them looked at each other and together they looked at Daniel. Wolfe was the one to break the silence.

"So _DAN_ what was all of that about?" Wolfe had a devious smile on his face.

"What?" Daniel replied calmly.

"Aw come on, you and that girl. I have to admit she's pretty, sure she's not at Vivian's level, but still." Wolfe said as lightly as he could. Jack leaned in from his seat with a soul piercing stare.

"It's not like that." Daniel replied. Then he pondered the semi-insult to Aoife.

Jack narrowed his eyes. He forgot his tape recorder back at home and now as much as he wished he had it, he relented in his stare and took a sip of his drink.

"Then what is it then?" Wolfe asked.

"Aoife likes to play the bass guitar but doesn't feel comfortable in her own skin about. I met her when I came to Beacon back when the Freshman enrolled." Daniel gave the lightest amount of information.

"That's it?" Wolfe raised his hands.

"… Yeah." Daniel didn't want to talk any further about it.

"Aw come on buddy, you got a lot going for you, what's stopping you?"

"It's not like that. Can we talk about something else?" Daniel requested before he took a sip of his drink.

"Wolfe, come on leave Daniel alone about it." Jaune finally spoke up.

"Fine then, but let me ask one question, is she related to anyone we know?" Wolfe chuckled.

"She's Jim Hoxworth's cousin." Daniel dropped a bomb.

"… Oh crap. Sorry about that." Wolfe eased up and leaned back in his chair.

"Don't be." Daniel said as he looked back to see the waiter come back. That whole time, none of them looked over the menu. Each of them placed an order. The waiter wrote down their order, he walked back to the kitchen and took care of other customers.

"Hang on; I don't recall seeing you out and about when I was with S-SHDW." Wolfe pondered the memory.

"Back when you would go do your own thing with gadget building, and when I went go do my own thing. It's not a big deal. So let's not make it one." Daniel said then an affirmative tone. Wolfe accepted Daniel's request. Jack and Jaune dropped the ordeal.

From there, the team engaged in small talk as they waited for their meals to come. A new band entered the stage and started to play some smooth jazz to calm the Club. Jack had several orders of the chĭl chin. Out of all of them, Wolfe seemed to be the one who ate the lightest amount of food.

"Not hungry tonight?" Jaune asked.

"No, I forgot to tell you guys that I'm meeting up with Vivian in about an hour. I'm not sure what we're going to do, so I'm just being prepared."

"No problem. Just please be back and ready to go in the morning when we go on our mission. I want all of us to be rested." Jaune gave his reasoning.

"Got it boss." Wolfe smiled as he rose from his seat to leave. "See you guys later."

Each of them waved Wolfe off as they continued to enjoy their meals. Jack got three BLT sandwiches. He kept at with a steady pace long after Jaune and Daniel slowed down on eating their food. Jack ordered the various forms of the chĭl chin and finished it amazingly. After a good twenty minutes, Jack took the final bite of his food and leaned back and rubbed his stomach on top of his shirt.

"Got a bottomless stomach?" Daniel chuckled at his own joke.

Jack looked to Daniel and gave him a gentle middle finger then an inaudible laugh. He looked at the ceiling.

"I think he ate too much." Jaune said as he looked at the bill. It was a decent price for what they ordered. Jaune took out his wallet and place his lien on the table. Daniel and Jack did the same.

"Wolfe walked out on the bill again, that jerk." Daniel did a half smile. He looked at his watch. "Well we still got some time tonight. We just need to get some backpacks to get some clothes at the dorm."

"Need help with that?" Jaune asked.

"Sure, it's not much." Daniel stood up from his chair. "Come on, if we leave now, we can catch the next airship in ten minutes

"Let's go." Jaune said as each of them stood up and walked to the front desk to pay for their meal. It took about a minute.

Each of them walked out into the street, Jack looked like he had a hard time walking because he felt bloated from the food. He burped in silence as he walked alongside Daniel. The reached a four corner intersection and had to wait until the sidewalk signaled them. They watched intently.

Jaune scanned the surrounding view and noticed someone in particular. In a clothing store across the street and looked to be alone. The person picked up a shirt and rotated then judged it. Jaune let thought swim around his mind as the street lights changed giving JAS the chance to cross the street.

"Hey Daniel, do you need me to help on getting the clothes?" Jaune asked.

"Not really, like I said, it's not much. Jack and I can handle it. Why?" Daniel looked over his shoulder.

"I just want to walk around, you know clear my head." Jaune said with the perfect poker face.

Daniel recalled what Jaune said back when he first arrived at Club Errera. So he felt like it was appropriate for Jaune to want time for himself. "Yeah, we'll be fine. Come on Jack, we have three minutes before the airship arrives." Daniel waved as he and Jack sprinted off to catch the airship down the block.

Jaune turned around and walked in the direction of the store he spotted the person. The store was called Sweet Kicks, a supposed clothing store aimed for young people. It had the pictures of smiling models in clothes in overblown pictures. For Jaune, these places always had him feel insecure. He knew it was stupid, but it was always a thought in the back of his head.

He looked inside the store and hope he wasn't spotted. He didn't see the person in the store. _Ah well, I guess I missed_. Jaune turned around there she was, she stood there in full view and gave a blank expression toward him.

"Evening." Was the only thing Jaune could think of at that moment.

"Evening to you too." She responded. "What are you doing here, there's a thing called personal space."

"Well, the thing is, I don't trust you at all, Cinder." Jaune retorted.

Cinder rolled her eyes as she walked around him with a shopping bag in her hand. With when she was at his back, Jaune could feel a tip of a blade at his back. He didn't feel like being skewered before his mission with JAWS.

"What are you doing here?" Cinder asked coldly as she watched out for people.

"Just finished dinner with my team. We were walking home and I noticed you here. I reacted and here we are." _Fuck! Am I that easy to spot in a crowd?_ Jaune looked over his shoulder.

"Unless you need to know, I'm still human. I still like going out and be left alone to my own devices." Cinder scowled.

"The feeling is mutual. Can you please move the knife away from my back?" Jaune asked as Cinder walked in front of him. She raised her hand and revealed a small clothes hanger with a jagged tip. There was no blade after all.

"Darn." Jaune eased his back from the non-existent danger. Cinder was in casual clothing as well. She had a black red long sleeve shirt on with black pants and black athletic shoes. She emanated that 'Don't fuck with me' vibe which didn't take much effort on her part.

"Again, what are you doing here?" Cinder asked.

"I have no reason. I was just suspicious with you. I was expecting you be torturing a small group of puppies or something." Jaune said in rather calm tone. _I thought you were following me actually._

"Well, the thing is, the pet store won't give me puppies anymore." Cinder said as she looked around to see if there was anyone that watched them. She didn't spot anyone and the people there minded their own business.

"I'll believe you as there isn't any evidence that proves otherwise. If something does happen, I'll hold you responsible and therefore there must be a penalty. Got it?"

"You make it sound like I have to choice on the matter." Jaune cocked his head back in slight confusion.

"Shut up and walk." Cinder stated with a hint of frustration. The two walked several blocks in complete silence. Jaune couldn't think of anything to say to break the tension of walk. He thought of just leaving but he didn't know what would be the reaction on Cinder's part. Jaune took a step forward which seemed to be in the same direction as Cinder. Then he caved in in how loud silence can be. So he said something off the top of his head. "Exploring the city?"

"Already have. It's pretty boring with the people the same as the city. Well-dressed but there's nothing special underneath." Cinder said as she walked along the sidewalk.

Jaune mentally rolled his eyes. "I would repeat myself but I doubt you'll listen." Jaune said in a calm tone. Being too rude to Cinder can prove deadly and Jaune didn't feel like taking that gamble.

"A fair assumption." Cinder replied without the need to look back at Jaune. She looked both ways before she decided to cross the street. "What about you? How do you see the people of Vale?"

Jaune didn't look at Cinder as he pondered the thought. "I don't have much to say really. I care more so of how people think of me than how I feel about them." Jaune shrugged.

Cinder stopped in her pace and Jaune followed her example.

"I think the people of Vale know they are blessed with the barrier of the world. To have the chance to develop into something that they feel that they can control, to allow themselves to feel like they matter. It's not like none of the kingdoms were built in a day." Jaune looked around watched the people in the area walk by in their own little worlds. "I don't think all of us can appreciate of what they have. There is still civil unrest and it's more of a social event than an individual one. Nothing I can do about it, but still. I think the people are in the right place of mind to make such a city function." Jaune looked back toward Cinder.

"It sounds like you avoided my question." Cinder said as she walked to an isolated bench on the street. Jaune looked around and noticed he was in the Maelstrom district. In the far corner of the park, Jaune could see the same noodle stand that the Payday Gang ate at after they did the Commissar Job.

Jaune looked back at Cinder. "Fine." Cinder sat down with her bag by her ankle and Jaune sat at the corner of the bench. It was clear that he wanted to keep his distance as his only one leg sat on the bench while the other half was stretched out so he could balance himself out from the lack of space.

"What I think is that the world doesn't like me and doesn't care of what the hell I say or do. When I do something and say I'm sorry about it, the world acts as if it's my fault entirely. When I like or say something out of the ordinary, I become no better than something to bash on. It happened before I even came to Beacon. Kids who would call me a girl and pick on because I didn't like to do 'what a man would do.' I was called Gay be those who learned I learned how to knit from my mother or how I liked to cook with my sisters. It seems like the world likes to think it's too good for me. So I'm treated like a goofball and I can be nothing more." Jaune closed his mouth to gather his thoughts again. "It can only change when I do something about it." Jaune looked at Cinder. "That's why I forged my papers to get into Beacon, to show the world I still have something to prove."

"So you came here because you're insecure about yourself?" Cinder summed it up.

"… Basically, if something happened, then the world would care even less and continue to move on with time. So it's more of a personal thing than a world thing. The sun will rise and Remnant will keep spinning."

"How about you? How do you feel about the world?" Jaune asked.

"Just that a majority of people of the world delude themselves in thinking of how their lives need to revolve around a system. How they listen to the tune of what is expected of them. To think that we have to worry about what some celebrity did with their toilet last week and to be ignorant of the world around them. To me, the walls provide protection and trap the idiocy within. It seemed like you were ready to accept how the world wanted to treat you. But in coming to Beacon, it was your first act of defiance, isn't it Jaune?"

"I guess…" Jaune did a light shrug. "I think it's not that walls make us ignorant, it just becomes a less of a worry for the individual. I mean, with the nomadic tribes, they have to be on constant alert, while here; the people don't have to worry where they hid their weapons in case of a Grimm attack. I think with the security comes with peace of mind." Jaune added what he thinks of what Cinder meant.

Cinder looked back toward the street. "Hmm fair point."

Cinder and Jaune looked out on the street in silence. Jaune noticed a child with a ball in his hand as he jogged along the sidewalk as another child was right behind him. They laughed as the boy passed the ball to his friend. Apparently the other child was a girl and a Faunus. She looked to be part dog. Jaune couldn't guess which breed. But she had two small flappy ears as she jogged along with her friend. To pull him away from his observation was how Cinder scoffed about something to pull Jaune away.

"Huh?" He looked back at Cinder. "What?"

"I think a moment ago, it was the first time we ever agreed about something." Cinder said calmly.

"Yeah, it's rather odd isn't it?" Jaune joked. Neither of them laughed about it though. "Is Emerald and Neo back yet?"

"No, Neo is still on her mission but Emerald and Mercury will come back soon. Just be ready for when I call for your assistance." Cinder said in her normal cold tone. "Is this what you really wanted to ask?"

"Yeah." Jaune replied in the same tone.

"Great, you've been updated. Now, leave me alone." Cinder ordered.

"Alright." Jaune said as he got to his feet. He took one step and stopped himself and looked over his shoulder. "Are you enjoying the comic books?" Jaune asked.

"They aren't half bad. I say that because half the issues that go nowhere in the story." Cinder expressed on how annoyed she felt about it.

"Well as long as you're trying something new I guess." Jaune raised his arms as he walked down the sidewalk. He didn't let anything distract him on his way back home.

Cinder looked back toward the street as she wanted to enjoy the rest of her evening.

The next morning

Jaune stood at the airship station with his teammates after how Jaune entered JAWS to do a Search and Destroy mission. He felt good and wanted to get in the field with his team. Jaune wore his standard hunter's gear. His hoodie along with his sword and shield at the ready.

JAWS stood together as they waited for their huntsman.

Jack stood tall as he gripped his weapon tightly as he was rather excited to go into action with modified weapon. His clothing was of a dark brown aviator's jacket, with black pants with a grey undershirt. The jacket didn't have the long collars because he didn't want it to distract him when he's in combat. Jack stood there as he opened his jacket to take out his tape recorder. With the new tape he purchased several days ago. It was 'Action Hero delivery lines' along with his custom tape and 'Tactical Plays Today.' Jack smiled as he looked over to his teammates.

"You excited Jack?" Jaune asked.

"VeerT, I'll have what he's having!" Jacket's smiled beamed.

"God that was terrible." Daniel face palmed his forehead. For Daniel's appearance, he had a black long sleeve shirt to cover his arms. He had two small straps at his wrists and elbows to keep his shirt from being too baggy. Over it, Daniel had a V-neck shirt of a similar cyan blue to it. His pants were of dark blue jeans and with black athletic shoes. On his shoulder, he was equipped with his TMP Sabre that the handle looked to be bulkier from back when they did the job for Hector. Along his belt Daniel had several custom pockets to hold extra ammunition and other assorted items to help in the fight.

"I thought those tapes might be good for something." Wolfe said as he walked alongside his teammates. Wolfe was prepared with brown cargo pants, a red t-shirt, and over the shirt was a black vest with various pockets inside it. It was custom made. As in those pockets were an assortment of tools that he would need for his daily work that made him a technician. At his lower back, Wolfe had a grey briefcase that contained small lightweight tools he needs for anything. At his right hip was his pistol holster with his special Glock 18 with the combat blades. He grumbled about how he had to leave his G36 at home.

"So you guys all set?" A deep voice called out from behind the team. JAWS looked behind to see their huntsman. He was a tall black man with buzz cut hair with a well-kept goatee. He wore casual clothing of an elaborate blue shorts and with a sleeveless shirt that wasn't an undershirt but instead meant for a boxer. This huntsman name was TJ Abyss, a middle aged man but still in shape for what it takes to be a huntsman. He smiled at team as he strapped his boxing gloves on. His arms showed nothing but jagged scars from the shoulder to his wrists. But so far TJ Abyss looked to be comfortable in his own skin.

"So are all of you ready to hunt some Grimm?" TJ smiled.

"Yes sir." Daniel straightened his back along with the rest of JAWS.

"Well, let's get going." TJ Abyss walked onto the platform of the airship. The rest of JAWS boarded right behind him.

The journey took about an hour. During that time. Daniel and Jaune pegged TJ Abyss with so many questions of his past as a Huntsman. He answered all the questions with ease and talked of being a good huntsman rather than focusing on being the best. He was very adamant about that.

Above a clearing of grass. Each of them disembarked the airship. Here Jaune was again. A mission in the Emerald forest to kill some Grimm. All the other sectors were already claimed by other teams and this was the only sector that remained for JAWS.

"Alright then people. Gather around. We have a received word that the Grimm in this area has become rather ornery as of late. Several teams had do retrieval missions and didn't yield any good news. We need to clear out as much as we can within the next twelve hours. Can you do it?" TJ Abyss asked as the team around him accepted what he was referring to. Jaune especially.

"Great. Let's begin the patrol." TJ Abyss said taking his first step into from their landing location. JAWS walked in a square formation as TJ Abyss stood in the middle. Jaune and Daniel stood in front while Jack and Wolfe watched their flanks. In the distance along the tree line, after searching for a good fifty minutes, the team found some Grimm that prepared for them. A dozen Beowolves, Boarbatusks, with some Ursa Majors and Minors.

With some clicks and pops of weapons, Jaune rolled his head around once as he was ready to blow off some steam.

"Are we ready guys?" Jaune smiled at JAWS. 'Crocea Mors' at the ready.

"Aw yeah." Wolfe took 'Demon Dancer' out of its holster.

Jacket flicked his wrist for 'Palm Sun' to extend fully. He loaded several shells into the gullet of the shotgun.

**Play the song now**

"Don't stop me now." Daniel pressed the button for his sabre called the 'Phantom Breaker.' "Don't stop me now."

"We got this team." Jaune said loud enough for all of them to hear. TJ Abyss watched with arms crossed. He was rather impressed how JAWS rallied themselves.

"Don't stop me now." Daniel smiled as the team charged forward. With a clear view of all the potential dangers, Daniel had the mental outlines cover all the targets. His first opponent was a Beowulf. It bared its teeth and swiped the air as Daniel closed in. He slashed downward to have the claw of the Beowulf become severed. The claw however remained in the air and floated in place. Daniel remembered what it meant.

"Aw yeah! I can finally let loose!" Wolfe shouted. The claw launched in rapid speed as it struck the eyes of the Beowulf and it stumble backwards for Jacket to sprint up and blast the torso off the legs. A shell glided in the air as he pumped the next one into the chamber.

Jaune noticed another Beowulf come in to try to bite Jacket. Jaune jumped and rolled forward and lifted his shield upward to knock the Beowulf off course as it approached Jacket. He noticed it in time. Palm Sun shifted into the back end of it as a crowbar and Jacket pierced the skull of the Beowulf and he unleashed his store semblance to electrocute the Beowulf until it couldn't resist anymore.

Jacket pulled the Palm Sun out of the head and he looked on ahead.

"Don't stop me now; I'm having a good time!" Daniel chanted as the team continued their assault.

Jaune sprinted forward as Wolfe provided backup with Demon Dancer firing several bullets as a two Ursa Majors crawled up to challenge JAWS. Demon Dancer aimed upward and Wolfe fired six shots in the general direction of the Ursa Majors.

"Jack! Throw your weapon."

Jacket followed the order as he pulled Palm Sun back by building momentum by as he spun the sledgehammer around and with the right amount of speed, he tossed it forward. Wolfe noticed the toss and took several steps back and he closed his eyes and opened them when he was calm. He had Demon Dancer in his left hand as he had his right hand form a palm and with his semblance he propelled Palm Sun at greater speed to stab one Ursa Major by the time Daniel was close enough. With him feeling at his center, Daniel predicted the outline of where the Ursa Major would attack next. It was going to be a downward slam with both arms as the second Ursa Major will come in with teeth at the ready to finish him.

What the Ursa Majors didn't expect as was the cover fire Wolfe provided with Demon Dancer to distract the second Ursa Major. The bullets glazed off the bone portions of the body seen clearly by the sparks of light that emanated from it. Jaune lowered his body and with the full force of his body, he sprinted forward so after Wolfe barrage, Jaune could shove the second Ursa Major back several inches.

With the red carpet rolled out for him, Daniel smiled as he closed the distance again with Phantom Breaker raised in parallel with his body used Palm Sun as leverage for him to jump on top of the first Ursa Major's back. He turned around quickly enough for him to position Phantom Breaker at the throat of the Ursa Major. With a simple slash, the Ursa Major toppled over. Daniel jumped off and pulled Palm Sun out along with him. When he rolled onto the ground, Phantom Breaker went into its TMP form as Daniel fired a clip's worth of ammo toward the income Boarbatusks.

Jacket sprinted on ahead while it shifted into the shotgun form. Curiosity of Daniel. Jacket showed up in time to push Daniel out of the way of a Boarbatusk roll. The tusks on this one looked pointed enough to piece the body with ease. Jacket took hold of Palm Sun as he touched the hammer end. He used his Semblance to allow some electricity to flow into the metal. The same Boarbatusk adjusted itself to roll toward Jacket this time. He reversed his grip of Palm Sun for the weapon to slam into the ground with a burst of electricity from the hammer. In the past, the team made so many Thor puns. But Jacket didn't care.

With the power of the attack, the Boarbatusk fell outside of its roll to be at the feet of Wolfe. He stomped with his left foot as he aimed for the eye slits of the Grimm. Wolfe fired two bullets to finish it off. Jaune at the same time did the same by his cuts to the chest and legs to the second Ursa Major. Jaune had to use his right foot to help provide leverage for him to pull out his sword from the body.

The team rallied together as Jacket was the one who breathed clearly through his nose. The rest gasped for air but followed Jacket's example. The next wave of Grimm was approaching fast.

"We're having such a good time!" Daniel continued the song.

Another Ursa Major appeared with a spiked back as it roared in the direction of JAWS as many other forms of Grimm appeared along-side it. Three Ursa Majors roared on their sprint in. JAWS took a defensive formation.

"AAAHHH!" A figure appeared form the team's left side. It was TJ Abyss using his right knee to knock an Ursa Major on the head. It was difficult to judge expressions from the Grimm but if Jaune had to guess, the Ursa Majors would be surprised by him.

"HA, Ha, Heyah!" TJ Abyss grunt as his arms glowed a bright blue as he took hold of one Ursa Major make a full by turn and slammed it into the grass. He did it so hard that the body bounced off the ground from the force for TJ Abyss to unleash a barrage of punches. With his left hand pulled back, TJ released a Haymaker to crush the face of the Ursa Major in. He turned around. He took hold of a claw swipe and he used his strength to pull I forward and toss it into a tree to corner the Ursa Major for him to punch out.

"Come on! Is that all you got?" TJ Abyss shouted. "I got these two; you get the rest of them!" He ordered JAWS to move in. The other two Ursa Majors tried to double team him.

"You heard the man, let's move!" Wolfe said as he slammed a fresh clip into Demon Dancer. Jacket loaded several shells into Palm Sun. Jacket made sure to pack extra shells.

"VeerrT, Say our name!" Jacket's recorder played an old TV show catch phrase.

"We're JAWS!" Wolfe shouted in reply.

"VRT, Your dust damn right!" The team broke apart.

Wolfe fired Demon Dancer as a Beowulf jumped toward him and he flicked his pistol for the blade end to extend and he leaned back for the Beowulf to over shot him. Wolfe didn't wait for the Beowulf to gather its bearings. He stomped the hind leg to _SNAP_ in half as the Beowulf growled to scramble into. Several bullets introduced themselves into the body of Beowulf as it went lifeless.

Jacket raised Palm Sun for a Beowulf to become impaled on the Crowbar end by its own jump in as with his strength, Jacket raised the Beowulf high above him until it couldn't attack him from the impalement. Jacket lowered Palm Sun and with a horizontal motion it slid of the metal and rolled along the grass to Daniel's feet. He turned around to see the wounded Beowulf. Daniel reversed his sword and slice horizontally for a head to roll along he grass.

**The song should end now**

"Look out, Nevermore coming in hot!" TJ Abyss shouted after he finished his current Ursa Major as he beat its face in. He turned around toward more Boarbatusks and Beowolves as they rallied for another attack. "I'll take care of the next wave. You got the Nevermore JAWS?"

Jaune banged his sword on his shield for self-assurance. "You bet."

"Make me proud." TJ clasped his hands together and sprinted forward and rolled for to grab a Beowulf to slam into the ground again. He could clearly handle all the numbers. JAWS looked up and there was a call of a Nevermore. The bird roared in the sky as the shadow loomed over the trees and grass. Jacket looked up to see the Nevermore fly by. It was rather difficult to guess an object's size in the air, but it was close enough to tell it was big.

There wasn't much for them to react to until a wave of the birds feathers rained from the sky. The feathers are basically spears that could impale a person if they weren't careful. Nevermores have the ability to use their feathers to kill from above them then move in to the ground to finish the job. The same patterned happened for JAWS but there weren't any convenient ruins nearby for them to use. Jaune raised his shield in time for it to deflect a feather in time. It stuck into the ground and the Nevermore passed them.

"I knew I should have packed the Howitzer." Wolfe whispered to himself. He ejected a magazine from Demon Dancer.

"Ideas?" Jaune asked as the Nevermore still hasn't circled around yet. He recalled back in the initiation trial, before RWBY become RWBY, each member on their own had enough firepower to kill the most dangerous Grimm and it still took all of them to work together to kill a Nevermore. Jaune respected them for their persistence back then.

"Hey Wolfe if I make a mental images of the incoming feathers, could you-" Daniel trailed off in words as Wolfe nodded to what he talked about.

Jacket loaded several more shells into Palm Sun. When his left hand was free, he pressed several buttons on his tape recorder. "VrreeERt, Look alive, ert coming back." Jacket's left hand then pointed toward the sky.

A dozen feathers glided down the air. Jaune raised his shield again for him to be prepared for a feather. If Daniel could really concentrate, he could let his outline predictions affect his teammates to see the dangers as well. He didn't want to let his teammates down. So Daniel pulled through.

Wolfe walked behind Jaune as he used his shield to prevent any serious harm that was aimed at him. Then with the brief window, a large feather released from the Nevermore and it was aimed toward the ground, Wolfe saw his chance.

"Cover me!" Wolfe shouted as he sprinted forward to use his semblance to take that feather from its trajectory. Jaune sprinted forward to knock another feather out of the way. Daniel sidestepped a feather that was aimed for his chest. Jacket went 'fuck your feather' as he noticed an outline from above to see which one it was going to be. He lifted Palm Sun to blast the feather off its path which landed several inches off course from his location. Jacket looked back up as Wolfe took control of one feather coming down toward him.

Wolfe succeeded on getting the feather to be moved from its angle for him to modify it on the fall. His left hand curled up and the as the momentum build, Wolfe let the feather drop close enough to him for him to pull it forward. He spun around with the feather in front of him and tossed it back toward the Nevermore.

The black feather flew in the air and missed the Nevermore as it didn't seem to react to the attack. On the next two strafes Wolfe missed again. Each of them started to grow tired as they let their bodies settle for the moment.

Daniel glanced back to see TJ Abyss still fine and appeared to be close enough to finish off the last of the Grimm attack.

"Alright!" Wolfe shouted to himself as the Nevermore adjusted itself on the flight back.

The feathers rained from above and from there, Wolfe caught another feather and slingshot it back toward the Nevermore from the toss back, the Nevermore flinched in its flight.

"Whoo, got me a Nevermore!" Wolfe smiled. The Nevermore turned around again then from there a dozen more feathers came down. Wolfe acted quickly as the slingshot another feather and it struck the Nevermore in the upper region of its torso.

The Nevermore flinched again. Jacket sense that the Grimm was done with this game as the size of the Nevermore grew even larger. It was on its way down to finish them off.

"Ah crap." Wolfe uttered before the wings expanded and the Nevermore roared at them on the approach. Demon Dancer quickly unloaded a whole clip then same happened with Phantom Breaker and Palm Sun.

The Nevermore landed with it flicking its wing as Jaune had to crouch down as the feathers shot at them. Daniel, Jacket and Wolfe had to get out of the way and the three of them sprinted off to find cover in the trees.

The Nevermore roared again. The Jaune sprinted to as a several feathers aimed at him. As one feather grazed Jaune's right arm since it was barely out of the cover of his shield. Jaune kept his pace. AWS appeared from the trees as Demon Dancer fired as Jacket and Daniel appeared to provide backup for Jaune. Several feathers flew in their direction. One feather struck Jacket in his right hip which caused him to side step to his left. He jerked back from the force. He adjusted himself to walk forward again. Several sparks emanated in Palm Sun.

Daniel knew he had to catch up with Jaune in time. He sprinted as fast as he could. More bullets from Demon Dancer distracted the Nevermore for a brief moment as the head flinched to the right. That was all that they needed.

Jacket made the first move as the twisted Palm Sun backward and the weapon just had several blue cracks of light around it. Jacket charged Palm Sun and he released as he tossed the hammer end forward and Wolfe pushed it forward from his position. It gained speed and none of the feathers were prepared for it as Palm Sun struck the very center of the Nevermore. It felt a wave of electricity over it and it roared, both wings of the Nevermore stopped the feathers. Jaune and Daniel had their chance.

Daniel sprinted from the left and Jaune from the right. Both swords gleamed off the sunlight above as they reached the wings. Daniel jumped on first as Phantom Breaker pierced the skin as he sprinted along the wing. Jaune did the same. Both of them gave a war cry on the black body. Crocea Mors glided along the skin as Jaune had it lowered behind him. Jaune and Daniel reached the shoulder of the Nevermore and in a combined golf swing. Phantom Breaker waved off to the right from Jaune's head and Crocea Mors did the same for Daniel. The both of them stood in parallel as the severed head fell to the grass. Jaune and Daniel jumped and walked away as the body toppled over.

Daniel and Jaune noticed that Jack was hurt and jogged over to him. Jack looked at them with confusion as the ripped the feather from his hip. Daniel took a step forward in worry. Jacket opened his well jacket to show his shirt, there wasn't any blood. Jacket held on head and extended it for them to see. Jacket was fine the feather on pierced his side as two holes could be clearly seen on it.

Wolfe walked out from the tree line and JAWS stood together. Each proud and surprised by the amount they were able to do. Jacket was the first on to feel the fatigue. He took a step back and he let him down to fall to his knees and he rolled to his side in exhaustion. Daniel took a knee. Jaune closed Crocea Mors and sheathed it at his belt and joined to sit down on the grass. The only one that stayed on feet was Wolfe.

_Clap clap clap._ JAWS looked up to see TJ Abyss clap his hands together.

"Well done. I mean, wow. I haven't seen a team this in sync before." TJ smiled as he walked around the team to be in full view. Jack didn't pay attention as he reached inside his jacket and pulled out a small taser he keeps for himself. He pulled his sleeve back and gave himself a good jolt. When he charged Palm Sun, he over exerted himself.

"Nice work." TJ Abyss looked at the path JAWS made as the dead Grimm began to dissipate.

"Please… keep saying nice things about us." Wolfe chuckled as he took several deep breaths. JAWS and TJ Abyss took several minutes to collect themselves. All of them got back up on their feet and prepared to continue their patrol.

"Alright, so when the next attack comes. Just don't put your all into it, otherwise you'll be tired again." TJ said as the team arranged themselves to walk in formation.

"Great job out there. Nice used of the semblance Wolfe." Jaune said as they spread out.

"Thanks." Wolfe nodded. He lowered his shoulders as he could pull his vest to his right and took a deep breath.

Daniel said something to Jack as he nodded back to him.

"Come on, there should be a nearby abandoned tram station for us to gather ourselves." TJ Abyss pointed out. The team walked for a good thirty minutes as JAWS gathered themselves.

Each of them was happy with themselves and had mutual silence between them as they walked through the forest. Several Grimm here and there but nothing serious. TJ Abyss took it upon himself to take care of some of them.

"Alright people, the tram statin should just be over his… hill?" TJ drifted off his sentence as JAWS looked down below to see not an abandoned tram station. But a sprawl of several train cars and a dozens of people below in white outfits.

"Get down!" TJ ordered. JAWS did as their told and all of them lay down on the grass.

"What is it?" Wolfe asked.

"Shut up and listen. Those people down there. They're White Fang. As in the terrorists, I recognize the emblem I spotted off one of them." TJ looked back down the hill.

"So what's the plan?" Jaune asked.

"We pull out and get a senior team of Beacon ready." TJ Abyss replied.

Daniel crawled up to get a view. Um, guys? There are a lot of crates down there." Daniel said with a dubious tone to get their attention. Jacket and Wolfe looked out down there.

"Oh crap…" Wolfe said as he looked away.

"What?" Jaune asked.

"Those aren't normal crates, they're munitions crates. As in weapons and other military grade hardware. I've heard of the White Fang being dangerous, but not on this level." Wolfe rubbed forehead.

TJ Abyss looked away from the team. "Alright, all you stay here. I'm going move in to get a look around. Each of you head back to the landing site and call for help."

Jaune didn't like that idea at all. "Look at the stuff down there. We can't just run away we can help you." Jaune said with a deep grimace.

"I'm your huntsman, I have to protect you on your mission. I can't allow-" TJ was cut off as Jaune nodded down the hill while Jack and Wolfe followed him. Daniel looked back at TJ.

"I'm sorry." Daniel shrugged as he turned around to join his team.

"…Freshmen…" TJ shook his head as he walked off to join them.

At the tree line, the team watched.

"Are those crates strapped down?" A Fang member asked his partner as they walked along the tracks.

"Yeah yeah. The guys that came in this morning made that clear." The partner said in response. She scratched her chin.

"Those guys can be real assholes." The first Fang member said as he walked. In his was the TGS-12. A submachine gun manufactured from Vacuo. It had a bulky design as the 'H' format to it but it was still a decent gun. It just looks like the White Fang are on a budget.

Along the railway, were two dozen black droids that had crimson eye sensors about them. Wolfe couldn't recognize the model. He and Jack took cover behind a crate. Wolfe wasn't careful enough because when he hit the crate, he did so with too much force. The crate made a sound.

"Huh? What was that noise?" Both guards readied their guns. They knew of the direction of the sound and walked in parallel to each other as they approached the crate. Daniel and Wolfe could sense the guards.

"Heyo." A voice called out to get their attention.

The two looked over to see Daniel stand by himself as he waved at them.

"What are you doing here!?" The woman shouted as she leveled her weapon to his chest. The two of them prepared to fire. With his hand at his ear, the first guard felt pressure at his shoulder. He looked in the direction for a red glove to come in to make the lights go out. He jerked back and dropped his weapon.

The woman noticed the black man and before she could set the safety off her gun, a metallic wall bashed into her as she stumbled forward into the range of the boxer. She was knocked out with ease. Jaune lifted his left arm to adjust his shield comfortably again.

"Not bad." TJ nodded to Jaune.

"HEY! Who are you?" A voice called out. Another patrol noticed them.

"Stay right there!" One of five guards shouted toward them. Three of which were the black droids. They prepared their guns. Jaune ducked down and hide behind a crate. TJ did the same.

"Open fire!" Bullets hailed from that direction as Jaune and TJ were pinned down.

"So much for the stealthy approach!" Wolfe cracked a joke as he used his semblance to pull a TGS toward him. When the bullets let up, Wolfe and Daniel popped out of cover and fired back at the guards.

A droid's jaw part of the helmet jerked back ad it stumbled backward. It regained its balance to fire back at them. The two White Fang guards took cover.

"We have a security breach! Sound the alarm!" One shouted into his earpiece to his checkpoint station. Several seconds afterward, several lights lit out around the station. To whoever was placed here knew that JAWS was in the house.

On the other side of the station, the Command Center

"Shit! Someone found us. Get what you can load up and start the train. We're leaving!" A person shouted in a silver uniform toward the regular White Fang Members. The person had a black outline of a claw on his uniform.

Several members scrambled about to complete the order.

"We won't fail."

Back to JAWS

Two of the droids were killed from the gun fire of Wolfe and Daniel but they still couldn't move from their location. But what they didn't expect, was as they fired at each other, Jack circled around their location and stood above them. The head of the last droid expanded as the helmet was blasted apart by Palm Sun. Jack jumped down before the guards could rely on reflex. He sprinted forward and Palm Sun shifted it the hammer and came down with him.

With a clear crack. Jack broke the arm of one guard and aimed the barrel of his weapon at the head of the other.

She was smart enough to drop her weapon and raise her hands.

Everyone else stood up and moved from their location. Wolfe crouched down and looted several clips of ammunition and placed them in his empty pockets of his vest. He passed a spare TGS that had a sling to for Jaune. He put it over his shoulder as three black droids appeared with swords. The red faces tilted side to side. Like how JAWS and TJ are some kind of rare species. Jaune drew Crocea Mors and he braced himself for them. Daniel provided back up with Phantom Breaker in sabre form.

They made short work of the droids as the head of the last on hit the ground. The lights inside dimmed out for final shut down.

From the Command Center

The same silver figure watched as more droid units faded from the signal array. He slammed his fist on a nearby table. He grumbled to himself as he walked to the intercom. He knew what he had to do for his mission.

JAWS

"Not bad kids. I'm heading around the long way to see what I can find. Be careful… all of you." TJ said as he sprinted off to see what he could do.

Jaune ejected a spent clip of ammunition and Wolfe tossed him a spare. It wasn't any SR 10 that's for sure. But it didn't matter. From above, an echo called out from the various intercoms around the station.

"I'm not taking any chances! Deploy the Vanguard Unit!" The voice shouted.

"Vanguard?" Daniel raised his left eyebrow.

"Oh crap…" Jaune said as he looked forward. At one hundred feet away. A lone figure dressed in jet black clothes and outlined in red walked forward. The same red hair, weapon hilt, and narrow mask. The figure stopped in the open and took hold of his weapon. A red blade appeared from the sheath and the figure turned his head toward JAWS. Something was odd around him though. Just by the glance that way, each of them could see some kind of distortion in the light.

Then they appeared. Five more figures dressed in black and red katanas. All of them of various sizes as all of them blades shined off the light. The whistle to the train screeched.

The first one walked forward and his name was Adam. He pointed his katana straight toward JAWS. "Slaughter them."

**Hello everyone. Thank you so much for reading this chapter. First let me explain that TJ Abyss is basically TJ Combo from the Killer Instinct fighting game reboot. I don't own the game but it looks like so much fun to play. So yeah, quite the chapter isn't it? We see a lot of stuff. For a small author's note, the reason why Wolfe doesn't use his semblance is because it would be easy to identify him if someone he knew saw him in action during a heist. The same reason applies to why Jacket can't use his tape recorder in public. Then the Payday Gang would be compromised. Also, I have an announcement to make.**

**I have new thing to add to my story in terms of choices. It's called "**Deathwish.**" Basically like how it is in the game. For those of you who don't know what Deathwish is. It's a difficulty multiplier for the game during heists.**

**So what Deathwish means for the story is that I'm going to offer difficulty spikes to certain heists that the Payday Gang will have to face off against. So you have the chance to make the job a living hell for them. (Maniacal laughter) Ahem, I offer three choices. You vote the same way as you would for Preplanning.**

**ONE vote per person.**

**Also, the job with the Deathwish won't be in the very next chapter. It'll take some time. So that'll give some readers some extra time to vote. **

**Speaking of the heist it's a job for Vlad. A bank hit with a twist, so let me offer the choices. Remember, it isn't going to be impossible for the heist, there will still be a chance for Payday Gang to succeed, but you get to choose a specific hardship for the heist.**

**Option 1. **Stag-Beetle**. A variant version of the Beetle. It should cause some major havoc.**

**Option 2. **Dozer Rush**. Just think of a police wave but with Bulldozers.**

**Option 3. **Kamikaze Droids**. Some droids that have some sort of faulty programming. On the label of the helmets says "return to sender if dealing with issues." The thing is, the senders no longer exist.**

**Please cast your votes and leave a thought of the story. Thank you all for reading, have a wonderful day. Now for the response corner.**

**Lukefang: **Thank you.

**Iandude:** I was worried if people wouldn't like the song I chose for Oobleck. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

**humania: **I'm making the story in the best way I can think of. I agree with you that I need practice on my ability to write with better descriptions. So if that is how I feel, okay then. I'm not going to apologize if that is how you feel. I'm not gonna force you to read, it's not like I can anyway. Goodbye.

**Operator Blake Roxasrock:** Thank you for reading. Have a great day.

**CrimsonHeresy:** I like to think that Pyrrha keeps her emotions I check from practice at home. She's a strong girl. I felt like her having to deal with a strong change would rock anyone's world. No no no, nothing that drastic enough for a challenge. I have a strong respect for teachers, I think with them taking the time of their lives to help me with mine is a gift that shouldn't be wasted. I think with Glynda, she would have the right words for any situation.

**A noob: **Thank you for reading.

**Andrei N00B: **The four store heist was one to blow off steam, but still weird. Well, during a heists, the Payday Gang don't use semblances or aura is because if some kind of evidence is taken. It would put all of them at risk. Jaune is getting progressively better. Thank you for liking the Cinder and Jaune conversations, I put a lot of thought into them. About the aura healing. In Jaune's case, he has it but I would assume he doesn't know how to properly use it. So that's the main reason. Thank you for reading and have a great day.


	25. Chapter 25, The Train Ride

**Hello again everybody. The songs for this chapter will be "**Factory**" from the Castle Crashers soundtrack along with "**Awakening the Chaos II**" from the BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma soundtrack. The return of Adam was a prolonged secret I had a hard time keeping to myself. I avoided a couple of foreshadows to it. Also I just want to thank roosterteethfantic for adding this story to the "**Best of RWBY Fanfiction**" community stories list. I'm happy that would include it. With that out of the way, I hope you're ready for this chapter.**

**First song Factory: ** watch?v=cWYhYw8jHIA

**Second song Awakening the Chaos:** watch?v=S-dBMhAOx4I

"Who are these guys?" Daniel prepped Phantom Breaker in the sabre form.

"Just serious trouble, stick together!" Jaune responded. He elevated his shield in time as a red katana struck it. A woman cloaked in black snarled at him. She appeared to be young from what Jaune could judge from her chin. There was lack of wrinkles and scars. The Grimm mask had the same blank stare like the creatures. Jaune raised his sword but only struck air as the first woman Vanguard dashed back as her companions charged. Two moved directly forward while two others circled around JAWS.

Adam watched, he smirked at the sight then faded from view.

Jacket lifted Palm Sun into the Cruiser shotgun and he blasted two random shots to have a Vanguard move off of his path. Demon Dancer's barrel stared at a Vanguard but his target however disappeared from view. With the right amount of focus, the team could see the distorted air move around.

That and Daniel already made outlines of them before they could faded again. Sparks flew as Phantom Breaker clashed with a katana. This target was a middle aged man with a dark tan and two small tusks from his jaw. A Boar Faunus.

The blades grinded together as the two continued to fight. With a free arm, the Vanguard reached to his side and pulled out a dagger. Daniel noticed it so he jerked his head forward. The uncanny tactic proved useful since the head-butt caused the Vanguard to be distracted. Daniel did a light chuckle while the Vanguard shook his head. The taunt didn't work. He took a deep breath then charged forward back at Daniel.

Palm Sun reverted back to melee form when a Vanguard closed in on him. He didn't react fast enough as the outline jumped toward him. The motion around him told him that the outline used his body as a way to position its legs on his sternum. He looked up as the outline was crouched on his chest and had its arms on his shoulders for support. The outline extended its legs to launch from him and the outline was launched backward. Jacket landed on his back. A red swipe moved down toward him, he snapped his neck to his right as the outline stuck the ground. A waved of brown appeared before him as he clenched a fist in time to punch his enemy in the calf.

"Bastard!" The outline howled in pain with a feminine voice.

Jacket shook his head and rolled to his side as Demon Dancer fire several rounds sporadically. One arm helped Jacket while the other held Demon Dancer.

"Get up and fight!" Wolfe shouted. In four seconds, Demon Dancer clicked empty.

Jacket didn't have time to use his recorder. Two outlines approached Jaune in the distance. The blades were thirsty. Jacket turned to Wolfe and slapped his back for Wolfe to look.

"Jaune look out!" Wolfe shouted.

Jaune looked into the direction to see two outlines. His current target backed off, most likely to stay out of range in the attack. Jaune reversed his sword and pierced the ground then scrambled for the TGS. He looked up and the red outlines were upon him. Jaune blinked as one blade grazed his right forearm as he stepped back and the fired the TGS at full auto. The flashes of light he looked up. The outlines side stepped him as he felt something graze his back. Jaune flinched. Bullets whiffed past him as Wolfe and Daniel offered support. Jacket brought his hammer down and his Vanguard target rolled out of the way to dodge.

"These guys are hard to hit!" Daniel shouted. The three Vanguards backed off from Jaune finally.

"So? We just gotta work for it!" Wolfe retorted as he raised his TGS. The cloaked enemies knew they were targeted and separated. It was obvious that their invisibility was useless. All of the Vanguard appeared from there stealth state and quickly spread apart.

Demon Dancer shifted in the knuckle buster and knife variant. One Vanguard approached him with the sword sheathed. The current clip of Demon Dancer was empty and there was no time for Wolfe to reload it. The Vanguard closed the distance with the sword being drawn for the upward slash. The blades clashed, Demon Dancer guided the katana from its path. The Vanguard stepped forward for the katana to graze his shoulder.

"Argh!" Wolfe grunted as the cut deepened. He could see the blood from his shoulder.

From the mask, the mouth was exposed on the Vanguard. The woman smiled at her work. Wolfe flinched as he stepped forward to allow the cut deeper for moment and he raised his left foot to stomp her right foot.

She grunted and flinched. It was new to her but it didn't matter to Wolfe. A single flinch was all he needed. The katana was removed when Demon Dancer on the knuckle end struck her right across the left temple. The Vanguard stepped back from the counter attack. While she shook her head, two other Vanguards appeared behind her. Wolfe walked backward as he noticed Daniel and Jaune to his right.

The two of them fired their weapons for the Vanguards to separate. Four of the Vanguard took cover behind chest high metal barriers. Phantom Breaker fired several rounds to suppress them. The Fifth Vanguard was in combat with Jacket. From the looks of it, Adam wasn't there to be seen.

_Where is he?_ Jaune thought while another clip slammed into the TGS.

Jacket and his opponent were still deadlocked in combat. The outline for him backed off in time. Palm Sun went to shotgun form and fired a shell that obviously missed.

Daniel looked toward the Vanguards in cover as all of them adjusted their hands to pull out other weapons. In this case, guns. Daniel's eyes widened. He jumped forward as he pulled Wolfe to the ground.

"GET DOWN!" The two rolled over to take refuge behind a metal crate. Jacket sprinted then slide to a metal wall. Palm Sun aimed down range.

Jaune jumped and slammed into the dirt as he took cover behind a short rock. A wave of bullets broke the air. The Vanguard Unit gathered around several metal chest high barriers for the workers here a long time ago. Two were at a slight elevation higher that the other three. Each of them had what looked like several rifle light weapons. Most likely from their katana sheaths. Probably custom weapons. Behind them was a semi large metal wall. The object behind them looked to be a storage unit. Probably full of tools.

"Fuck!" Wolfe shouted as he lowered his head. His TGS needed a new magazine. "Reloading!"

"I got you." Daniel nodded while he took several blind fire shots.

Jacket was the furthest away from his team as well as the Vanguard Unit. Each of them had some sort of rifle or sub machine gun. One fired at his position. Most likely the one he fought from earlier. His head shook forward with a wordless cuss. He scanned around to see if there was anything that could turn the tide. He noticed something and smiled to it.

At the same time, Jaune unslung his TGS. The weapon at his shoulder after Crocea Mors was sheathed. At his shoulder Jaune looked to his right to see Daniel and Wolfe pinned down.

"Nononono." Jaune chanted. The bullets were never-ending from what he could tell from the outline. Each of them took turns. _They have some kind of communication devices._ The train whistles blew. _They're just stalling us!_ Jaune looked forward.

"How are you guys?"

"Fantastic. Just loving it here!" Wolfe looked toward Jaune.

Two of them fired while the other three reloaded. The thing is that this time, each of them looked like they prepared to move. _We have to do something!_ Then in the air a small box landed in the soft dirt between Jaune and Daniel's cover. It was Jacket's tape recorder.

"A little help?" The recorder echoed.

One Vanguard looked out from cover to see a Hunter in a jacket with a bulky yellow cylinder on his left shoulder. The Vanguard that was supposed to watch him took too long to reload in time. With just that one second of a distraction. JWS looked out from cover and fired their guns sporadically to force the Vanguard to take cover.

Jacket had a Rivet Launcher on his shoulder. The damn thing looked about two-thirds of his size. It had a rotary system as Jacket fired the first rivet at the Vanguard. A spear like bullet and lodged itself onto a metal wall. The Rivet Launcher took several seconds to load on rotation.

"Help lupo!" The recorder played at a louder volume. Wolfe looked to Jacket to see that his legs were wobbling from the weight of the device. He dropped his TGS and had both hands reach forward to support Jacket with his telekinesis. _The damn thing is heavy as fuck!_ Wolfe thought. His arms withstood the weight; even so, he did his best to keep it held up.

It was then that Jacket could elevate the Rivet Launcher better as he fired another round. It struck near the head of a Vanguard. The Vanguard flinched and looked to its right. Then at the same time, each member scrambled in their cover as it they were about to make a move. Jacket felt the thing rotate again.

Phantom Breaker clicked. "I'm out!" Daniel reached for his lower back and felt the last clip. He couldn't let this go on. Jaune took over for Daniel. It wasn't enough to keep the Vanguard suppressed anymore. One popped out as Jaune fired around the Vanguard. She didn't move much and lowered her head again. The other three moved from cover and hopped over a metal wall. The other two did the same as Jacket fired again as the Rivet completely pierced the cover of where a Vanguard was. The Vanguard looked shaken up by it. Another one took hold of the hand the two sprinted off over the wall.

Jacket took several steps forward and blasted another rivet and it struck the storage unit. He looked forward and nodded to his teammates. Daniel was the first one to get out of cover; he sprinted forward and slammed his back against the storage unit then checked the corner. Several White Fang members scrambled about as they sprinted to get on the train.

"We gotta move!" Daniel shouted. The train looked like it was barely put together with crates sloppily arranged. Several members walked along the rails on look out. Two White Fang members noticed Daniel and fired at him.

Jacket bared his teeth with the Rivet Launcher. He glanced to Wolfe. Wolfe used his semblance to keep the thing to bear the weight. Jacket had his arms lift with all the energy he could summon, Wolfe did the same. Jacket rolled his arms with his shoulders; the Launcher grew heavier with every second. "Come on." Wolfe said as he picked up Jacket's recorder.

The walked in formation as Daniel snapped his head back from the gun fire. Jaune noticed that they needed cover fire. He sprinted forward and he stood behind Daniel. He tapped his back to let him know he had backup. It would take several seconds for Jacket and Wolfe to get the Rivet Launcher around the storage unit.

"Give me four seconds." Jaune shouted to Daniel. The current train car was a flattop platform.

Daniel didn't look at Jaune but his head nodded with Phantom Breaker to unleash its final clip. He pulled the trigger to give the skill for semi-automatic. Jaune raised his TGS then spent half of his clip to jog across to take cover behind another crate. Jaune ducked his head down as Daniel did the same.

Jaune took several pop shots randomly to see the bullets have no real effect. The gun clicked empty. He looked up to see that Jacket and Wolfe made it around the corner. Jaune looked down and slid the next clip. Just by the sound the train started to gain traction.

JAW appeared and the two White Fang members were shocked to see Jacket's weapon. Two more White Fang appeared on the scene to also be in awe. Jacket aimed upward toward the first set of White Fang soldiers and the mechanism rotated again and a rivet shot out and impaled a crate several inches away from his target. It would have them feel worried as those two sprinted off inside the train car. The new two White Fang members ducked down. Jacket adjusted his shoulder then fired another rivet. It missed entirely as it stuck a metal wall and the vibrations shook the wall and the metal flooring below the White Fang members. The two of them didn't raise their heads in retaliation.

The train gained speed, the surrounding area had no opposition to prevent JAWS from making a move. Jaune kept his TGS leveled. Daniel followed his lead. Wolfe and Jacket shoved the Rivet Launcher to his right and the two dropped it the ground. It raddled and rolled as the two looked forward.

Jacket made one step and his body gave out to his weight and fell onto his right knee. Jaune and Daniel flinched to help but Wolfe waved them off to get on the train. Wolfe offered his hand to get Jacket back up again. Jaune and Daniel did as suggested and sprinted onto the flat car. A dozen or so crates slid from the slight vibration.

"Where are those Vanguard guys?" Daniel shouted as he jumped aboard and aimed Phantom Dancer around. Back when each of them retreated, Daniel broke his concentration for a moment. The outlines dissipated.

"No idea." Jaune replied his honest answer. He jumped onto the train car platform. The TGS leveled as well.

Wolfe supported Jacket at the shoulder and the two jogged to the platform before the train was impossible to board. Jaune offered a hand as he pulled Jacket up. Wolfe jumped on as well. The two White Fang members saw JAWS on a train car behind them and they scrambled to the furthest railing and they jumped off as the train gained in speed. One clenched at his right ankle.

"This is the slowest starting train I've ever seen." Wolfe laughed. He rotated his neck to see that his team didn't laugh with him.

JAWS scanned their surroundings. Jacket tugged on Palm Sun from his back. His new jacket had the same special strap on the back to help him carry an extra weapon. Wolfe tapped his shoulder.

"Here." Wolfe passed the tape recorder.

"vvErt, Thank you." Jacket rubbed his lower back.

"Lift with your legs not your back." Daniel pointed out.

Jacket replied with a middle finger. Daniel laughed and shook his head.

Each of them gathered themselves as they noticed that the train started to gain momentum. Daniel jogged forward then hugged the wall to a doorway into a black car which was rather large. Most the train cars appeared that way. Jacket got to his feet as he jolted himself with more power from his stun gun. After several seconds, Jacket pulled the taser away and shook it. The damn thing was out of power. From here on, he would have to use his semblance wisely.

Jacket frowned then set it inside his pocket. It took several seconds as the two of them sprinted off to hit the same wall. The two of them looked at each other and nodded. Daniel opened the door as Jaune aimed his TGS inside. There wasn't any opposition.

Jacket and Wolfe followed up from behind. The two of them burst through the door to see no one. They could have been easy targets as they noticed how stupidly they acted. Wolfe took cover and so did Jacket. Palm Sun and Demon Dancer shifted to gun form.

"Eyes peeled." Daniel said. It was mostly toward himself.

Jaune entered the space. Inside was a wide open expanse of room. It felt as if the place inside looked to a wide storage. The surrounding walls had the low dim of red lights. Several regular lights had a center line show the way out with a single small door. Along the way were dozens of crates stacked all around and weapon racks.

"Holy shit!" Wolfe said before anyone else could. Wolfe jogged over and noticed a wide array of firearms that he could only fawn over in Huntsman Armaments magazine.

"It looks like these White Fang guys are preparing for a war. A long one." Daniel said as he looked over Wolfe's shoulder. He spotted some weapons that he couldn't take his eyes off of. They glistened in the light and were the exact things they needed for their little attack.

There was a Colt CM901 Assault Rifle, a RPD Light Machine Gun, and USAS-12 shotgun. One rack that was still open and all of the other racks appeared to have been locked by the White Fang. The weapons were of many different kinds. There were Assault Rifles, Light Machine Guns, Submachine Guns, and Sniper Rifles. Such as AK-74s, H&amp;K MP5s, G36 Carbines, SVD Dragunovs. There was a mixture the various forms of fire arms. It was awe inspiring and startling to look at.

Jaune winced at the sight. _The White Fang was supposed to be a peaceful protest group now they are their own damn military!_ Jaune walked around Daniel to take hold of the CM901. The frame was similar enough to his Knights SR 10.

Without the need to speak, Daniel claimed the USAS.

"Oh yeah! Come to papa." Wolfe smiled as he took the RPD. The thing was meant for one shot drum magazines. Beside the rack was an ammunition crate. Jacket didn't waste time since he cracked it open with Palm Sun. The lid popped off with nine drum magazines stacked together inside a corner with a shoulder bag. Jacket took hold of the strap and lifted it to his shoulder. He nodded to Wolfe as he also took out a drum magazine. Inside the crate was shotgun shell magazines stacked together. About two dozen of them were ready for use. Jaune reached and claimed more of the CM901 magazines. Whatever the team didn't need at the moment, Wolfe and Jacket stuffed the bag inside with it full of ammo for them.

In other words, a makeshift ammo bag. Jacket was the one designated to carry it. The team was locked and loaded.

"What's the plan?" Daniel asked as he pulled the chamber back on his USAS.

"Keep moving up and hopefully we can stop this train." Jaune said as he clicked the safety off.

"Sounds good to me." Wolfe replied as he had the bullet belt secured to the RPD. He closed the hatch and clenched a fist to bump it on the top for it to click. It was eager to unleash some lead.

"eeRvvT, Go ahead… make my day." Jacket carried several USAS magazines to eject them when Palm Sun needed it. It made storage easy for him.

Along the walls, they appeared. Black clad armor with red lights all around. The helmets had the shape of an angered spirit. The mouth was too wide and the eye visors were narrow. These machines had black frames and like any other droid.

"Uh guys what are those?" Jaune lightly pointed his finger.

Daniel, Jaune, and Jacket simultaneously looked at Wolfe.

"What?" Wolfe stammered. "I don't know _every_ single droid model that's produced."

"Whatever they are, they look like knights, but evil." Daniel tilted his head to the side.

"Enemy in sight, engaging." A deep monotone smoker's voice emanated from the droids.

In the distance, it was clear that there were a dozen Knights, including several more activating behind them.

"Maybe they're easy?" Wolfe asked in a light tone

**Play the first song now**

The droids stood alongside each other, shoulder to shoulder. Nine of them stepped forward. Their arms crossed in a 'X' formation. With one swipe the arms separated as to have red blades at the forearms. The other three of them looked up and the red lights from the helmets appeared brighter. The three of them extended their arms then the hands reverted back and small barrels shifted out of the wrists, so in other words, small chain guns.

"Dust damn it." Wolfe uttered as he lifted his RPD.

Bullets erupted from the Knights as the forearm droids charged forward in formation. Jaune and Wolfe ducked down behind a crate. Palm Sun and Phantom Breaker shifted into their melee variants while the nine Blade Knights charged at the two of them. The Gun Knights focused on Jaune and Wolfe.

One Blade Knight had its right arm slash downward while the left arm thrust forward to hopefully impale Jacket. It didn't work since Phantom Breaker slashed swords on the pierce. Palm Sun's barrel looked directly into the Blade Knight. Palm Sun released the shell for the helmet to shatter into a thousand pieces.

Daniel looked forward as two Blade Knights came at him while one approached Jacket. An arm came from above, then the left, right, and below. Each slash was halted by Phantom Breaker. It was an obvious stalemate between him and the two Blade Knights. Jacket smashed a helmet in as the body fell downward. Palm Sun went to shotgun mode to help Daniel.

While they fought, Jaune and Wolfe were completely pinned down from the barrage of bullets. The CM901 aimed over the crate and several bullets uselessly were released from the barrel. Wolfe did the same thing.

"Give up." The same robotic voice beckoned them.

The bullet let up since the amount that hit the crate seemed less in number. It could be that one of the Gun Knights needed to reload. Jaune looked at Wolfe, it's all or nothing. The two of them exposed their upper bodies while they took aim. Jaune pulled the trigger.

Two shots flashed from the CM901 then nothing after that.

"Oh no!" Jaune looked down. The CM901 jammed.

_'Rakka Rakka Rakka'_ the RPD filled the void. Dozens of rounds filled the empty space in the air. One Gun Knight's head snapped back but the arms still aimed forward and returned fire. Jaune looked down to see that a shell casing was caught in the chamber. He had his left hand brush the shell casing out of the chamber. It flipped in the air while the Cm901 helped in the firefight.

One Knight knocked on the right shoulder as the arm flinched from the bullet but it stopped firing its gun the moment it waved off to the side. One Knight took the brunt of bullets. The left leg got kneecapped so it kneeled down while the right arm still aimed forward. Wolfe didn't relent while a several other bullets struck the center of the torso and it jerked back. It still aimed forward as the right arm reloaded.

"Lower your weapon!" Jaune shouted as the near destroyed Knight opened fire at Wolfe.

Wolfe looked forward as wave of white obstructed his view. It was Jaune's shield. Bullets scraped along the shield as Wolfe ducked his head down. Jaune couldn't move much without the risk of himself being shot.

"Incoming!" Daniel shouted as a severed head flew across the room and rolled to Wolfe's feet. He looked up.

Several arms swiped toward Jacket which Daniel would react as backup to fight the Knights. One arm slashed downward as Palm Sun's handle was raised to meet it. Jacket looked down to see Phantom Breaker come from his side to impale the Blade Knight. I looked directly at Jacket and it adjusted its arm to impale him. The barrel of Palm Sun took aim and the upper torso blasted apart.

"Yeah!" Daniel said as he looked away from the helping Jacket to have a forearm blade come down to swipe his left shoulder. "Argh!" Daniel stumbled back. He shook his head and focused less on the pain as he readied his USAS 12 to blow away two more droids.

Jacket widened his eyes as he tackled the same droid that cut Daniel. His teeth were exposed and grinded together as Jacket punched the helmet with a right hook then left hook. Palm Sun was on his right as he reached for it as it droid shifted its right arm free and grazed Jacket's knuckles. Palm Sun was pulled back in Hammer form as he dropped it to crush the helmet in. He looked up to see Daniel was still on his feet fighting.

Jacket looked back to his target. He felt an unbridled rage take over him. In some way, he felt content with this feeling. Jacket lifted Palm Sun to be lifted over his head and holstered in his strap. While he got on his feet, Jacket took hold of both arms of the dead droid and pulled, after several seconds, Jacket was able to pull the arms out of the joints. The forearms may be of crimson blade, but the hands were still somewhat exposed. Jacket turned around to see three Blade Knights charge at him.

Meanwhile, Jaune provided temporary cover for Wolfe. The two of them were able to finish off their two targets. Jaune and Wolfe sprinted off to help the rest of the team. Demon Dancer shifted as Crocea Mors prepared as well. There weren't any Gun Knights at the moment.

Jaune sprinted in to lift his shield in time as a Blade Knight slashed downward. Phantom Breaker shot forward in a fencer's motion as it struck the neck area of the droid. Daniel reversed his grip on Phantom Breaker so in a switch motion, Daniel sliced the helmet in half.

Demon Dancer flew across the empty space to strike stomach region of another Blade Knight. Jacket followed up as his left hand flicked the droid arm forward in a whip motion. It grazed the droid as one arm left up to deflect Jacket's right attack which had the second droid arm. That reflex is what gave Jacket the chance to completely close the distance. Jacket dropped the right arm completely as he flicked the left droid arm around as the elbow dangled for him to jump forward to take the droid to the ground. The elbow wrapped around the neck of the droid. Frantically, the droid waved its arms about as it tried to slash Jacket's arm but it just got the severed droid arm. Jacket kept pulling back with his hands as the helmet popped out which revealed a central power system as several wires sparked. Jacket dropped the arm and with his left hand, he reached forward to take hold the wires. With a rush of energy, Jacket pulled Demon Dancer out of the chest, Wolfe walked over as it lightly tossed to him.

"Not bad." Wolfe chuckled. The two of them looked to their right as the remaining Blade Knights were in combat with Jaune and Daniel.

Jaune noticed too late on from behind that a Blade Knight had one arm slash on his left. He felt his left hip cry in agony. "Agh!" Jaune turned around then tugged on the CM901 and he unleashed a dozen rounds as he fell to the ground. The Blade Knight jerked around in spastic motions. The USAS removed the right foot of the Blade Knight. The Blade Knight tripped over as Phantom Breaker stabbed down with it. It scrambled under the blade. Daniel twisted and twisted it for the Blade Knight to give out from the damage. Palm Sun came in to smash the helmet.

The final droid reversed its right arm for a straight punch to Daniel. He closed his eyes, funny… it probably must hurt so much that he didn't feel anything at all. Daniel slowly opened his eyes to see that the fist was six inches from his face. Demon Dancer's bladed end was dead locked with the fist. Wolfe pulled it out and guided it along the arm to slash the throat and the he plunged Demon Dancer into the visor of the final Blade Knight.

**The song ends here.**

Each member gathered themselves as they formed a circle.

"We good?" Daniel asked. His chest clearly had the cut from a Knight's blade. Jacket rolled his left shoulder around. His cheek had a small indentation on it, he must have been punched at some point and his left knuckles had the cuts from earlier. He brushed it off and flicked his hand. Wolfe was the only one who went unscathed. Jaune looked at his shield. Clearly from all the bullets and blades, some of the paint was scratched away. _Just a battle scar_. Jaune said while Wolfe inspected his cut.

"Yeah, from the looks of it, you're fine. You turned around soon enough before the blade could've carved you up." Wolfe spoke in a calm tone.

Jacket and Daniel concentrated their auras to seal their wounds. These droids that the White Fang have sure pack a punch. Jaune rubbed the back of his head, his clothes and the blood blocked their view. Jaune never admitted it to JAWS that he doesn't know how to use his aura properly. From the sting of it, Jaune could tell that it wasn't anything major.

"What kind of bots are these?" Daniel asked.

"No idea, but from the hardware, the persistence, and the weapons. These droids are most likely from the military. I'm not sure which one." Wolfe looked toward the mess they made. "That or the White Fang have a factory to crank out these bad boys."

"We can take 'em." Daniel smiled.

"Come on guys, we have to hurry before this train reaches Vale." Jaune ejected a clip from the CM901.

"We're not heading to Vale." Daniel replied.

"Huh?" Jaune said as the clip clicked into place.

"This train isn't heading toward Vale. When we boarded this train, it was directed toward the east. The opposite direction of Vale." Daniel added.

"What does this have to do with anything?" Wolfe said as he dropped a drum magazine from his RPD. The thought settled in his head. "Never mind, I answered my own question." He knew that there something going on with the White Fang.

"eeVrrrVt, Continue onward, vrt, must learn." Jacket didn't have the word to use the end of the sentence. He started to snap his fingers.

"Who the driver is?" Jaune asked.

"Where they're heading?" Daniel asked.

"Why they have so many weapons?" Wolfe added.

"VRT, All of the above." He nodded to his teammates.

"Well that settles it. We move forward. All opposed?" Jaune looked to his team. None of them said a word.

"All for the search?"

With that, Jaune heard the sound of three guns chamber the next bullet. "Let's go."

The team continued onward as they sprinted down the end of the train car. It the team noticed a wide expanse of a second flat open car in between them. Several more Gun Knights set up in preparation for JAWS.

_ It seems like the leader expects us to die or give up._ Jaune concluded as the team took cover on some flat metal railing between their car and the next one. For the train, there were small bridge between their car and the flat car they needed to cross. One wrong step across then it's a fate to be grinded in the tracks. The metal railing had several out in the opened out for with it evenly built with solid metal slabs in between the openings. Bullets went all around.

Jaune glanced from cover to see the outlines Daniel already made for their targets. There were five of them in total. One in particular seemed to have a rifle in its hands. Jaune looked forward to see a small hole from his cover. If they stay here, their cover won't hold up for long. JAWS prepared for their attack. Wolfe was the first one to do so, he took aim but the moment he did a bullet struck the drum magazine of his weapon. It trailed off and Wolfe couldn't fire his weapon without the risk of jamming it.

"Dust damn it!" Wolfe shouted while Jacket, Daniel and Jaune returned fire.

Two of the droids were destroyed instantly. The bullets flew as Daniel could hear the bullets wiff past his ears. Then from top of the train car, Daniel noticed that the same uniquely armed Knight aimed its rifle at Jacket.

"Get down Jack!" Daniel adjusted his aim while the bullets fired an angle at them. Jacket lowered his head in time. Metal around him sparked from the danger.

The bullets came in two fast and seemed to be too accurate for any standard rifle. Then it came to Daniel. This droid was armed with a semi-automatic sniper rifle. From the rate it's most likely a Dragunov. Jacket remained pinned down for several seconds.

"Sniper!" Daniel pointed his left index finger to have the color of his target change from a red on to a green one.

"I see the fucker!" Wolfe shouted as he slammed the mechanism for the RPD to be loaded.

"Get it." Jaune replied to them. From his location, he didn't have a shot off on the sniper, but he could still see the other two droids. One was crouched down and not so subtly had its arms at its side while it reloaded. The second did the same. Jaune waited for his moment.

The sniper above was crouched down with its back to the metal barrier above. The Dragunov was likely loaded. Wolfe waited for his moment as well.

Daniel had to duck down to reload his USAS. While Jacket was pinned, he reloaded Palm Sun for the next attack.

The droids looked almost ready. "Advance." Jaune ordered. JAWS exposed themselves from their cover as every one of them stepped forward with their weapons held high. Each of them mind the gap and made it onto the flat car. The droids exposed themselves to be the ones carved up by gunfire. The last droid above showed itself as well, several bullets escaped to them. One bullet introduced itself to Wolfe's muscle. More specifically, his left calf.

Wolfe stopped his RPD as he fell forward to his knees. He looked up while JAS finished it off.

"Damnit." Wolfe grunted.

"Ah no, Wolfe you alright?"

"The bullet missed my head that's for sure." Wolfe tried to stand up straight. "I knew I would have to say this at some point, but bullets sting!" He looked down and took a deep breath. Wolfe's leg had a glow of a silvery light as he opened his eyes when the color faded.

"I'm fine, and judging from the pain, the bullet went through." Wolfe felt a deal of discomfort as JAS looked at him.

"Can you still walk straight?" Jaune asked.

Wolfe took a step forward and he didn't topple over. "I feel fine enough, though I don't want to test my luck."

"VRT, Sounds good." Jacket extended his right arm with a thumbs up.

Each of them collected themselves as they moved forward across the flat car. This continued for the next two cars. Several Blade Knights and Gun Knights tried to impede their progress. The droids were destroyed with their efforts. Jacket, Wolfe and Jaune received a couple of scraps from Blade Knights. From unforeseen luck, none of them were shot because they all took cover when the bullets flew.

A new train car remained silent while a door in the center burst open while Daniel and Wolfe aimed into the train car. Along the walls were a series of black crates stacked three high. Nothing there, but they didn't relent in their aim. Jaune and Jacket walked in as well. After this amount of fighting, JAWS had their clothes with several smudge marks, the occasional blood stain, and the grimy dirt.

"Ugh, these new models are a paint to deal with." Jaune said as the room appeared clear. Wolfe sighed as he lowered his RPD for the strap to take the weight while he leaned forward. He regulated his breathing to keep himself ready.

"So how many cars you think we are from the one we got on from?" Daniel asked. From the journey, each member was nearly depleted on their ammunition. Jacket understood the situation and adjusted his back with the bag to the center of all of them. Each in JAWS took out the ammo. Wolfe only had three drums of ammo left and it included the one that was loaded.

"I hope it's just one more." Daniel said with a glum expression.

"Sadly, you're mistaken." A voiced echoed from the train car.

JAWS prepared for the voice as each of them aimed in a random direction.

"Where is he?" Daniel asked.

"Guys. Move on ahead. I'll catch up." Jaune ordered. From the sound alone, he had to retighten his grip of his sword.

AWS looked at Jaune. "You can't be serious?" Daniel said dumbfounded.

"I am, just go."

"We can-"

"I said go!" Jaune shouted.

Wolfe leaned his head back slightly. "Are you sure about this?"

"I am."

"Fine, you heard the man."

"Do you seriously think I'll allow any of you to get past me?" The voice said in a gruff tone.

"I do, otherwise, you'll never get our rematch!" Jaune shouted.

…

…

…

"The three of you, leave us. If you interrupt this match, I'll kill you." The voice gave his proposition.

"I don't like this." Daniel said as he walked in the center of the train car.

"It's fine. Just go."

"VRT, Be careful." Jacket nodded to Jaune. Jaune returned the sentiment.

With that, AWS walked across the train car as they opened the door and closed it behind them.

"Fine, you got me alone, now what?" Jaune looked around the train car.

"We continue where we left off." Adam appeared right in front of Jaune.

In the next train car

Jacket looked forward. This car looked almost the same way to the one before. Then the sound came. The revving of the chains and the roar of the machine. Wolfe looked forward to see a man come in view. He stood at 6 feet and 10 inches tall. From the look of his arms, he had tan skin. His left arm had black curved tattoos. With one step he revved his chainsaw all the more. This man had a uniform on like the White Fang, but is looked strangely different. A Silver shaped claw was where the usual emblem of an animal head should be. He had a collared shirt over at the shoulders and his wrists were covered in grey metal with black glovers underneath. His Grimm mask had the appearance of a Nevermore with red tears. This Faunus man was eager for a fight.

"Well hello there, I haven't killed anyone in a while, and one of you will do nicely."

"VRT, I accept your challenge." Jacket stood in front of his teammates.

"Not you too." Wolfe wanted to sigh to the idea.

"VRT, more ground, VRT better outcome." Jacket nodded to Daniel. There wasn't any time for debate.

"Come on Wolfe, we have a mission to do." Daniel said with newfound confidence.

"This plan is bullshit!" Wolfe shouted as he and Daniel sprinted forward. Palm Sun fired several rounds in the direction of his Chainsaw wilder. So for the meantime, Jacket decided to call his opponent Chainsaw for the time being. Little did Wolfe know, Jacket wanted to do this so when he finished on Chainsaw, he'll go back to help Jaune. Hopefully Wolfe and Daniel would figure out a way to stop this train.

Chainsaw noticed that Jacket aimed at him and he sidestepped the shot and kicked a crate in Jacket's direction. Jacket had Palm Sun fire at the crate to knock it off course.

Daniel and Wolfe made it past Chainsaw.

"You'll do." Chainsaw said in a guff deep tone to Jacket.

"Vrt, Bring it Fuckface."

Back to Jaune's Car.

"Oh yes, I remember you. Back at the overpass." Adam leaned his head back. "You had a mask back then."

"Yeah that was me. No use in denying it." Jaune glanced at his shield.

"I still don't have a name for you. I recognize the dual crescent moons on your shield."

"Just keep guessing." Jaune said his words carefully.

"Want me to work for it." Adam said as he took hold of the katana's hilt. "Fine by me."

**Play the second song**

"Wait a moment. How about a wager?" Jaune made his play.

"Hmm?"

"If I can stay alive for two minutes, we call off the fight." Jaune loosened the strap to his CM901 and had it drop to the floor. "Swords only."

"Explain why would I allow that?" Adam cocked his head in slight annoyance.

"Well, judging from our fight before, you love a good fight. But you see I have been worn out by the droids, and the Vanguard, so I'm not at my absolute best." Jaune said clearly. "If I survive, you'll allow me passage through. Name your half of the wager."

"Interesting. I've never had someone offer a fight in such way." Adam didn't need time to think. "My part of the deal is that, when you can't fight anymore, you get to tell me your name." Adam pulled back his left sleeve and tapped his watch. "Right before I kill you."

"Deal." Jaune smiled.

Adam flashed from his position as his red katana did a horizontal slash directly at Jaune's shield. Another swipe of light appeared as Jaune lifted his sword. It was knocked off balance had his shield flip upward for the double crescent moons to be visible for him to do a punch forward. Adam disappeared from view.

Jaune gathered his bearings. From the silence, it didn't a good start for him. A crate of Jaune's right tipped over to crash open as bullets spilled out. Jaune looked at it but didn't allow himself to react to it in full guard. He looked forward as the black figure stood before him.

Jaune's left forearm had a sharp sting to it. The shield lifted up to block, the sword raised as well. The blades clashed then the katana pulled back. From the reflection of light, Jaune lowered his shield to prevent any foot slashes. Jaune countered with a thrust forward, Adam sidestepped the attack. As Jaune pulled back his arm, the shield was raised. Nothing struck the shield.

Jaune blinked as he lifted his sword up then had it over his right shoulder. He added some energy while Jaune launched the sword forward and swung around with it. By the time his head turned, Adam as mere inches from Jaune's sword.

"Now you're getting it." Adam said with a light nod.

Jacket's train car

The chainsaw revved repeatedly as Chainsaw's way of speech. Sound can easily deter some opposition. Palm Sun pumped out another shell. By the sound of the empty shell, it echoed louder than the chainsaw. It was strange, Jacket watched as Chainsaw approached and gained in speed.

Chainsaw sprinted forward to Jacket. Palm Sun shifted while he stepped back in time from the first slice from Chainsaw. A shell blasted too late to the right of Chainsaw. Chainsaw shot down while Palm Sun shot again, this time low enough for the pellets to ricochet off the metal and several struck Chainsaw's left calf.

Jacket sidestepped that moment while Chainsaw brought his weapon around. Palm Sun's handle felt the grind of the teeth. It sawed and sawed. Chainsaw smiled while he leaned in.

"Cry havoc." Chainsaw sneered.

Jacket could sense his grip weakening on Palm Sun. Chainsaw got closer and he let himself smile. His teeth had the canines. Jacket's opponent was a Wolf Faunus.

Jacket looked to his left and right, nothing there to help him. He had no other choice. Jacket pressed the switch for Palm Sun to shift. The mechanical parts adjusted and became entangled in the teeth of the chainsaw. It grinded to a halt.

"What?" Chainsaw looked down while a fist smashed into his face. The chainsaw and Palm Sun dropped to the metal floor

Jacket leaned down. When Chainsaw charged him, his recorder slipped out of his pocket. He sighed silently and looked up. "eeerrvt, and let slip the dogs of war."

Jacket sprinted forward with his right fist raised. Chainsaw returned in kind with his left fist. They charged toward one another.

Two train cars ahead.

Daniel and Wolfe both jogged into the next train car. There was a small squad of Knights. The two of them took care of them pretty quickly since Wolfe got the drop of them with his RPD. So after a hundred of bullets later, most of the Knights were destroyed pretty easily. Phantom Breaker cleaved the Blade Knights while Wolfe picked them off with careful gunfire. Wolfe and Daniel sprinted forward as the two of them walked into the next train car.

"What we got here?" One Vanguard asked as two others looked over his shoulder.

Daniel and Wolfe stood side by side as the three of the Vanguard stood up. From the masks, Wolfe and Daniel felt the menacing glares. Daniel already constructed outlines to them. The three of them broke apart and drew their katanas.

Daniel dashed forward while Wolfe fired several rounds as at the furthest target. One of them lifted his katana up then lightly passed it to another. One Vanguard had two katanas in hand while the one without one backed off, drew the sheath, with a press of a button, and a grip-like mechanism bent out for the Vanguard to take hold of.

Wolfe made the Gun Vanguard his priority he shifted his fire. Two of them ducked down behind crates. Daniel approached the duel wielding Vanguard. Phantom Breaker had the edge of the blade knock the katanas off their path with every swing. Daniel kept him at bay.

Wolfe noticed the Gun Vanguard prep a shot. From the outline, it was easy to tell when that the Vanguard prepared to get out of cover. Wolfe aimed his RPD. He pulled the trigger. The Gun Vanguard was suppressed from the flinching.

The third Vanguard noticed this and did the same thing with her katana sheath. Wolfe kept an eye on her as well. _I'm going to come up empty in several seconds_.

Daniel continued to cross swords with the dual wielder.

"This won't be easy!" Daniel shouted to Wolfe.

Adam's train car

Jaune looked at the ceiling while he lay on his back. Adam appeared again from a jump and his katana came down. Jaune rolled to his left for it was mere inches from his cheek. Jaune looked up for Adam walk to him. It was a leisurely pace as well.

_I get the feeling he's taking it easy on me._ Jaune thought as he had his right knee support himself on his feet. When he was ready, Adam ran toward him with the katana in the sheath. Jaune didn't have much choice.

The katana drew and Jaune's shield rose to meet it. The cool air kissed Jaune's skin of the sweat from the experience. At the very last second, the shield changed into the sheath. Adam noticed it too late while the sheath made contact with his stomach. In the blow, there wasn't any force.

Jaune stood on the opposite side of Adam.

"I would be impressed if that actually hurt."

"Fine by me." Jaune replied. He smiled at Adam.

Just by the slight tilt of the head, Adam was slightly confused by Jaune. It went away the moment Jaune went back into his battle stance when his back tensed up. The two clashed sword, Adam clearly wasn't going fast as he normally would. With every strike, his katana would meet the sword. The two of them continued that way for several seconds.

Eventually Jaune slipped on the return of sword strike. He pulled back too late, Adam caught on and he flicked his right palm then brought it Jaune's stomach.

"Gah!" Jaune's stomach heaved. Normally a punch would hurt, but Adam knows some tricks to make it hurt even more. Jaune's legs gave out. His right leg went first to the knee and he caught himself with his left leg then looked up. Jaune saw the blank expression that came from his opponent. Jaune wanted to look him in the eye but couldn't. Jaune' eyes drifted away from Adam.

…

'_Beep beep beep_.'

…

**The song should end here**

"It seems like I have lost our wager." Adam said as he sheathed his katana. At the end, Jaune could hear the '_slap_' sound of the katana.

Jaune stared at the floor while he heard footsteps away from him and stopped after several seconds. He looked up. The Vanguard wasn't in front of him anymore. Jaune looked to where the footsteps went, and there Adam was.

The Vanguard just stood there along a wall with his back to it. Arms crossed and breathed calmly.

"I thought I lost?" Jaune asked, as the feeling in his leg returned.

"No, you didn't." Adam shot back.

Jaune got to his feet. "Still want to know my name?" Jaune asked.

"Yes I do, but that'll be better for another time. Crescent Moons." Adam cocked his head.

"You gonna hunt me down?" Jaune asked.

Adam stared at Jaune for several seconds. "… No, we already met by chance. We'll meet again, eventually. Just stay alive until that happens, am I clear?"

"Crystal." Jaune replied as he took his first step. He took a couple of more as he picked up his CM901. Adam watched as he didn't bother to take hold of his katana. Jaune opened the doorway for him to walk through. The doors closed behind him.

_You're too much fun to kill_. Adam smiled to the thought.

Jacket's train car

Chainsaw sneered after Jacket had decked him square in the chest. The two have been at it back and forth. It seemed to end in favor of Jacket most of the time. From a haymaker earlier, Chainsaw spat out a tooth from the punch.

"You're pretty good." Chainsaw said in his deep tone.

Jacket shrugged at him.

Chainsaw scoffed and he charged forward to a close line to hopefully knock Jacket off his feet. Chainsaw's right arm went completely outstretched; he tried to enclose his arm to trap Jacket. It didn't work. Instead Jacket stepped toward it then had his left arm push Chainsaw's left arm upward and in the confusion, Jacket's right fist rose up to Chainsaw's jaw. It closed and Chainsaw bit his tongue in the process.

When the two separated, Chainsaw sprinted forward and quickly kicked a crate over for the contents to fall over. Jacket sprinted to the center of the room since Palm Sun was still in the semi transformed. He took hold of the handle; Jacket pressed the button for Palm Sun to reverse the change. Jacket spun around as the weapon changed back to the first form and it released the chainsaw to be tossed across the room. The barrel end of Palm Sun aimed while Chainsaw had a Milkor Grenade Launcher aimed at him.

"Too slow!" Chainsaw shouted. Two bullets flew through the air and the barrel end of the Milkor to be forced downward. Chainsaw looked up to see a blonde boy aim his gun at him. By the time he looked back, Palm Sun's handle struck his face. Chainsaw fell to the ground as Jacket cocked his head in victory.

"Did I get here just in time?" Jaune asked.

Jacket nodded to him.

The doors opened behind them and the two of them quickly aimed at the entrance.

They appeared. Wolfe and Daniel, the two of them supported each other at the shoulders. Daniel's left forehead had a small stream of blood while Wolfe had several cuts all around him.

"You guys are still alive, yay!" Daniel said sarcastically.

"You look like you've been through hell." Wolfe said as he got a good look at Jaune and Jacket.

"How is it in the other cars?"

"Damn impossible. The Vanguard retreated on us to fortify the other cars. Those black droids are too much. We barely escaped the Vanguards." Wolfe brushed his eyebrow. "Look, there's no way I like saying this, but." Wolfe around to his team. "We have to get out of here. Everyone is tired and we'll get killed the longer we stay."

Wolfe and Jaune started to weigh the options. Daniel looked at Jacket and Jacket nodded toward a knocked over crate. Daniel walked to it while Wolfe and Jaune bickered. Jacket and Daniel didn't pay much attention to them while Jacket helped Daniel take hold of a grenade launcher.

"We just can't move forward." Wolfe finished his sentence while the Milkor fired behind him. The wall furthest away from them had smoke around the site. Jaune and Wolfe looked over to see the light from the sun beam into the train car.

Daniel walked forward as he looked outside. "We're in luck. We have water beneath us." He shouted. Daniel tossed the Milkor out first.

"Screw this train!" Daniel said his part of the argument.

"Vrt, I'll have what he's having."

"How far is it?" Jaune asked.

"No idea, but this open area of the bridge won't last long!" Daniel shouted over the wind. Wolfe and Jaune walked to the open area of the hole Daniel made.

"I don't know." Wolfe said as he looked down.

"We're doing it!" Daniel shouted. At that moment, he and Jacket pushed forward so Jaune and Wolfe would be the first ones off the train. The other two jumped soon after them.

'_Splash!_' water spouted out from where they landed. Wolfe was the first one to have his head out of the water. Soon the rest of JAWS had their heads out of water. Wolfe popped his head out last as he looked around.

"You assholes!" Wolfe said by reflex.

Jaune watched as the train above them continued onward. The black cars had the rails make the constant sound of its movement. It appeared from their surroundings that that JAWS was in some kind of lake.

As Jaune watched from the water. It seemed that the train looked like it wasn't fazed at all. It didn't bug him that much. In the water, Jaune looked around while the occasional wave of water splashed over him. The name JAWS was fitting name after all since each of them knew how to swim. The team started to bicker at each other while they swam to shore.

**Hello everyone, another chapter down. How exciting. I know I left it on a hefty cliffhanger last time; I would have had this chapter done sooner. But my pet cat recently passed away and that controlled my mood for a time. So please understand. Motivation hasn't been with me much. I'm back now so let's focus on that. The TGS rifle the White Fang are using are the basic guns we see in the show. There's nothing particularly special about them. The recent tally for Death Wish is:**

**0 votes for the Stag Beetle**

**4 votes for the Dozer Rush**

**4 votes for Kamikaze Droids**

**Edit: I can admit this chapter was pretty sloppy. I was half asleep when I posted it and I could have just waited half a day to make the edits. So that's my fault. I think I got most of the errors.**

**There is still time. So cast them now if you want your voice heard. Thank you for reading and to have an excellent day. Now for the Response Corner.**

**Buddy:** There can't be much said on my part on Jacket but please keep an eye out. I'm happy you're enjoying the story so far.

**Drow79:** That will be a deadly round. So it can get interesting. Thank you for reading.

**Supernood257:** Happy Fourth of July to you too. I can't say anything that's spoiler related, sorry. Thank you for liking the story so much, I feel glad that you feel that way. Have a great day.

**Lukefang:** Yep, Death Wish is pretty awesome in Payday, so I thought, 'why not add it here?' I guess I'm the most sadistic since I love putting them in tough situations. Thank you for reading.

**MajorDarkBlade:** I think with any encounter, JAWS will feel closer. Thank for voting and to have an awesome day.

**Signed in Blood: **The game is great. If you check on steam once in a while, the game will be sold at a heavily reduced price and on several times Payday 2 was free on Steam. It happens sometimes before a really huge event for Overkill entertainment. It's a fun game. I highly recommend it. Suicide enemies are always trick depending on how some have to be handled. So I'll just have to put in that extra effort when if it comes to it. I do my best to keep myself going with this story. Thank you for reading and have a fantastic day.

**Iandude:** That is true. Thanks for voting.

**CrimsonHersey:** I want to do my best with making JAWS unique while still fun. They have their way of hanging out; I assume every group of friends does so. Yup, I can finally let the Vanguards out and about in the story. Adam is still a force to reckon with.

**Mr. Green 37: **Thank you for liking the story as well as Jaune's growth.

**Guest:** A very good point. Thank you for voting.

**Mr. Shark357:** Wow, I'm happy you feel that way. I do what I think what the characters would do in the story. Keeping them close to their real selves has been easy and difficult at times but still a fun challenge. Thank you for your kind words. I will use that luck. (Chuckle)

**Tommy298:** Cool. I can't go into detail with the answer, so please understand. Thank you for reading and have a great day.


	26. Chapter 26, Talk of the Future

**Here we go people. Another chapter hot and ready for ya. I'm happy to know there are so many people who are following this story. I'm humbled by it. Also, I would like to thank MrStark357 for Beta Reading and Editing. I think the chapter was improved immensely by your help. Thank you. Let's continue.**

Beacon Academy, 2nd Year Dorms

The brown framed door crept open as several young men entered their room. There were four of them in total. The first one to walk into the room was a young man in pure black pants, a black button up vest with a grey undershirt, even his shoes were black and grey. He had shoulder length hair with a chin full of whiskers. It looked fashionable for him. His name was John Wick.

"Do you think there could be a place downtown that is still open? I'm starving." John asked while he looked to the ceiling in bliss, in the knowledge of being home.

"Nah, I don't think the good places to eat would be." Another young man walked behind John. He appeared to be roughly the same age while his chin had way more whiskers compared to John. He wore dark green t-shirt with brown carpenter pants. He walked into the room rolling his shoulders. This young man was John's official partner at Beacon Academy, Desmond Poiter.

"Hey Daniel, we're back." John lightly called out.

…

No answer.

…

John walked ahead of Desmond. The two of them noticed the room was completely cleaned from all the trash and stuff that was scattered around before they left about two weeks earlier. Desmond walked into the third bedroom of the dorm.

John walked away from the hallway to see a completely empty room. Even the posters of Daniel's favorite movies and heroes were taken down. On the center of the room, was a plastic fold out table that Daniel borrowed from Desmond. On top of it, was a letter?

'To Nathan' was the top portion and below those words were 'I'm so sorry.' Wick looked as Desmond while he picked up the note. It wasn't sealed so Wick took out the note and read it to himself. At the end of it, Wick looked away and passed it off to Desmond. After a moment, he had the same reaction as Wick.

The front door opened up.

"Hey guys, Nathan and I got some take out. It's still warm and I hope you like tacos." A voice called from the hallway. To whom the voice belonged to was named Steven Hoxworth.

Wick and Desmond looked at each other at the same time. Wick waved at his partner and put a finger over his lip while he visibly closed the letter. With sleight of hand, Wick casually opened a gap in his button up for him to slide the letter inside. In a frown of confusion, Desmond looked toward the door.

"Did you guys hear me?" Hoxworth looked through the door to see what happened. "Whoa, didn't know he had it in him."

"Yeah." Desmond replied.

"Come on; remember dinner is on Nathan this time."

"Be right there." Wick nodded. He looked around the room again as Hoxworth grew bored and went back through the hallway. Desmond broke his posture then tapped Wick's shoulder.

"Now's not the time, okay?" Wick said in a low tone.

"I hope you're right. Nathan needs to read this after what happened."

"Agreed." Wick patted his chest to double check that he had the letter.

Both of them nodded then walked back into the hall to get back into the living room.

Back to JAWS

The water was cool while more of it splash into Daniel's eyes as he tried to swim forward. _I don't like water._ He thought. The sun beamed down to JAWS. Daniel paddled his arms under water for his body to turn to his team mates. Jacket frowned in the water as he spat some it out. Wolfe burped from the intake and wasn't fazed by it. Jaune on the other hand, had this weird smile as he watched the train pass by them on the tracks above.

"So guys? Three cheers for being alive?" Daniel chuckled. When he did, he immediately regretted it since he drank some water unintentionally.

Wolfe laughed at him and suffered the same fate. Jacket rolled his eyes while he stroked the water toward the shore.

"Hey Jaune, we rolling?" Daniel asked. _I wonder what the look was for?_

Jaune shook his head. "Yeah, coming."

Each member swam in the water in various ways. Jacket did the butterfly stroke in the water. He just had the blank expression he always has. Jaune waved his arms in front of him as he had his freestyle swimming. Daniel looked to his left, the water was clear enough for Daniel to see Wolfe and his swimming style. Wolfe's leaned up for his head, his legs reversed in the water while his hands curved and patted in the water.

…

Wolfe swam the doggy paddle. Daniel stared him.

…

"Shut up." Wolfe said before Daniel could say anything.

"There's a dog pun to be made, right _Wolfe_?" Daniel smiled. Wolfe narrowed his eyes then focused on swimming again.

It took the team ten minutes before they could reach the shore. Daniel and Jacket were the first ones to climb out of the water, while Wolfe was the last. After cracking a couple of jokes at his expense, the team looked around from where they were.

"Before anyone asks, we're at the Raven Forest." Daniel said while he brushed the dirt from his knees. For the most part, each member of JAWS had their clothes dripping with water and several blood stains in several areas. Daniel's just happened to be the most noticeable.

"We all good?" Jaune asked.

Jacket reached into his pocket, he pulled out his recorder. Drenched in water, he pressed several of the buttons. "Blurrrt, Mush mohe fowandof."

Just from that, Jacket faced palmed himself then looked to his team.

"Well that sucks." Jaune shrugged. Each of them started to wring out their clothes of the excess water.

"So, what do we do about that mess on the damn train?" Wolfe cut to the chase. He shook water off of Demon Dancer.

"Calm down Wolfe. We're lucky to be alive." Daniel overheard Jaune's reply.

"Buuurt, Wesh nepd to depaya." Jacket frowned while he shook the recorder for it to air out. His grip wasn't tight enough so when he lifted it up, the recorder slid out of his hand and then splashed in the water. Jacket frowned as he walked to his recorder…

_I need to think of something_. "Well so uh, those Vanguard guys were pretty tough."

"They were. Assholes cut my RPD in half, just when I gave her a name…" Wolfe had the strap on his shoulder.

Daniel recalled what happened. Shortly after they ran into the three Vanguards that waited for them, they fought to the point where both realized they were at a standstill. The dual wielding katana Vanguard tried to remove Daniel's head from his shoulders but Wolfe sprinted over and had his weapon placed in front of the katana. The weapon was sliced in half for Wolfe to toss the drum at the same Vanguard. Demon Dancer pulled through while the two of them escaped the Vanguards. When they left the car, it was odd. Daniel recalled on how that they weren't pursued by the Vanguards.

_Could it be that they assumed that Jaune and Jacket would have ambushed them_?

"They packed cloaking gear, the katanas looked well crafted, and their name as the Vanguard is enough for us to know they're no joke." Wolfe looked away from Jaune. As he delve into thought, he placed his palm over his lips.

Daniel heard the rustling of water since Jacket dragged his legs through.

The shore of the lake was a flat one while the sand shaped to their shoes. Sand seeped in from the water. With just one step on dry land, their clothes and shoes had a layer of sand for them to brush off.

The Raven Forest, a place considered evil a long time ago. The reason for that thinking is because of how the trees are unique to several places around Remnant. The trees in this area only had black leaves. The trees themselves are brown and research done many years earlier revealed… that there's nothing different from these trees compared to green trees. The leaves just happen to be black. Although, many still think of black trees as a bad omen, since the people can associate the color to the Grimm. It's interesting in the fall season that the trees change color of white or some form of grey.

The Raven forest almost reminded him of home._ I hope mom is okay. I better call her later._

"Hey guys." Daniel called out as each of the members got out of the water.

"Yeah?"

"I'm not sure about you, but do any of you know where we can find a town or something?" Daniel asked.

Wolfe and Jaune took out their scrolls to make a call. From the water damage, the scrolls were dead. Just getting rid of them could be a bad idea. They didn't say anything but the both of them pocketed their scrolls. Each of them replied with a, "no" to Daniel. _Great_.

Phantom Breaker came out in the sabre form to flick the water away.

"Come on, we better find some way to clean ourselves off and look for a place to stay for a while." Wolfe thought out loud.

Jaune nodded to the idea. The team walked away from the shore. All around the shore was patches of grass with several trees layered ten feet away. There was a small tree stump for Jacket to sit down on. Daniel watched Jacket walk out of the water, he had his left hand extended then closed his fingers.

_He must be feeling the aftermath from the Chainsaw guy_. Daniel concluded.

"I don't think so; I need to say that from our little incursion from earlier means that we should probably consider ourselves lucky to be alive." Jaune stated the obvious.

"Fair point." Wolfe responded, and Jaune noticed he didn't have his weapon from the train in hand.

"What happened to your RPD?" Jaune asked.

"A Vanguard jack hole sliced it in half. Had to use it as shield, otherwise I'd be missing a head right about now." Wolfe scoffed. "When that happened, Daniel and I had to pull out of our train car."

"Burrp, DHe shdko kay." Jacket used the recorder to make a noise for the team to look at him.

"How was that Chainsaw guy?" Daniel asked. _It doesn't look like that Jacket was seriously injured. As a matter of fact, he looks better off compared to the rest of us._ Daniel glanced at Wolfe's shoulder.

Jacket held out his hand and did light maybe wave as his hand shook in different directions. It was a 'maybe' gesture. While he did that, Wolfe finished wringing out his shirt of water as his upper body was exposed. Jaune held Wolfe's vest while he did so. It seemed that from the drop, Wolfe lost his tool kit in the water.

"Damn…" Wolfe muttered when he noticed the same thing.

"I'll buy you another one." Jaune offered.

"Thanks." Wolfe didn't see the need to throw a temper tantrum.

"Well, we should just-" A twig cracked behind him. Palm Sun and Demon Dancer adjusted from their forms and aimed a bush ahead of the team.

"We know you're there." Wolfe shouted.

"Please don't shoot." A voice called out from the bush. Daniel slowly turned around to see a Faunus girl stand up. Her hair was a sky blue while her eyes were of a hazel green. She looked to be in her mid to late teens. The girl's skin was a light tan but not as dark as Emerald.

"I'm so-so-sorry for spying." She stammered. By the look of her ears, they were folded downward with of a light brunette. She looked up and around the team to get a good look at them.

"Uh… hi?" Daniel walked in front of the team. When he moved, he cut off the direct line of fire of Palm Sun and Demon Dancer. Jacket and Wolfe knew what it meant and they lowered their weapons. _So much for making a good first impression_. Daniel thought while his arms were apart as he approached the girl.

"I'm sorry about that; we're just a bit jumpy." Daniel walked in front of the girl so she couldn't see the others adjust their weapons.

"Why are you guys jumpy?" While the girl looked away, Daniel's right arm waved, pointed upward and had his index finger out. Daniel made a, 'come over here' gesture but he only wanted one person to come over.

"We're hunters, from Beacon on a mission to kill some Grimm." Daniel said to keep the attention on him. Jacket and Jaune looked around as neither of them understood what Dan meant. Wolfe shrugged at them.

"Okay… well you and your friends are pretty far from Beacon." The girl looked over Daniel's shoulder to see Wolfe bicker in hand gestures with Jacket.

"Yeah about that." Jaune rubbed the back of his neck. "Where are we exactly?"

"You're at Sapphire Lake, in the Raven Forest." The girl shrugged. "From the lake to Emerald Forest is about 114 kilometers or 71 miles if you don't use the metric system."

"Wow, you have a great sense of direction." Jaune leaned back with an approving nod.

"It just comes from the region." The girl gave a half-hearted smile.

"Oh, where are my manners. I'm Jaune, this is Daniel." Daniel smiled.

"I'm Wolfe."

"This one right here is Jack." Jacket waved at the girl. "He doesn't like to talk." Jaune added.

"Um, nice to meet you." The girl replied. "My name is Felicia."

"Pleasure." Jaune said while he looked around. "Um Felicia, is there a town or something nearby we can go to use a scroll?"

"Sure, my village is about 5 kilometers from here. We can walk there if you're in a hurry." Felicia pointed her thumb behind herself as she looked around to see how the rest of AWS felt about it. None of them objected. The team was still drenched from the water as they wrung out as much as they could have. Still, it seemed like they were lucky since there wasn't any wind.

"Please take us to the village, thank you." Daniel spoke for the team. With that Felicia nodded then turned around.

"Follow me." Felicia waved her left hand in front of herself. The team caught her drift.

"Well, we better get started right now before you feel the cold from your clothes."

"Sounds like a plan." Jaune added.

"How'd you guys end all the way out here anyway?" Felicia didn't feel like waiting to ask.

"We um, ah…" Daniel looked toward the sky. _What do we tell her?_

"We're out here because we got stuck on an old train from a decommissioned station. We didn't have much choice but to blast our way out with some thermal dust grenades that we made before we left Beacon." Wolfe lied.

"So was that the explosion I heard?" Felicia asked.

"Yeah." Wolfe nodded. Behind him Jacket continued to shake his recorder of water.

"Is that how you found us?" Daniel asked. _She must've been close enough along the shore line._

"Yeah, thought it could be that someone was in trouble, but you guys fit the part." Felicia shook her head left and right.

"What's in this village anyway?" Jaune looked ahead. "And why are you alone?"

"I'm part of the Carla Village and I'm alone because I want to be…" Felicia lightly tilted her head to the left. _Strange._ Daniel noticed the gesture while the rest of the team stared at the ground to make sure they wouldn't lose their footing.

"For a group of Hunters, I would think some of you would be a little more heroic?" Felicia wise cracked.

"There were, apparently… (pant) they were on coffee break and we were sent instead…" Wolfe tugged on his vest.

"Ah, so you're the secondary team." Felicia nodded as she didn't to look back. Daniel was the last one. Jaune kept in pace with Felicia, Wolfe started to pant but did his best to avoid making noise, and Jacket started to sweat. Daniel noticed a sweaty tear trickle down his left eyebrow then grazed his eye then drift down his cheek.

_Too many donuts and the hefty meals are catching up with him_. Daniel chuckled.

The team and their guide continued their walk for the next hour. The occasional Grimm showed up and the team took turns in killing the danger. On Wolfe's turn he had the deal with an Ursa Major while the rest watched from afar. Of course on his never ending cuss spree, Wolfe distracted the Ursa while Jacket came in with Palm Sun. Along the way, Jaune explained what the team was on at Beacon.

"Gulllrrt, Wesh do sadsa." Jacket tested his recorder again. This time he was at the end of his patience. In the brief moment of rage he frantically waved his tape recorder around. Several drops of water flew out.

"Why does your teammate use a tape recorder?" Felicia frowned.

Daniel looked at Jacket, and then noticed that Jacket pursed his lips and lifted his right eyebrow.

Daniel thought his words carefully. "We don't exactly know. He just doesn't like to talk. But using his recorder… he's kinda cheating the system of being a mute." _I hope that's enough._

"Fair enough." Felicia looked at her wrist to see the time. "It's 2:24 PM."

"How about a break?" Wolfe asked.

"Why? We're five minutes away from my village."

"Oh thank dust." Wolfe rubbed his forehead of sweat.

"You two are really out of shape." Jaune started off.

"Yeah, no kidding." Daniel rubbed salt on the wound.

"When we get back, how about we start a training routine?" Jaune looked at Daniel. "How about morning runs? I can ask for some pointers from Pyrrha."

_I could support that._ Daniel thought. "I concur, we can do some stuff in the morning and midday. Let's see if they can put themselves through it."

"Fuck… you… both…"

Jacket caught up to Wolfe, whom had his left palm up. The two high fived then gave their double united middle fingers to Jaune and Daniel. The both of them started to crack up on their heckling to Wolf and Jacket. Several feet away from Jaune, Felicia couldn't help but laugh at the sight of the team of jerks.

"You guys are really something."

"We try." Jaune replied.

The team's walk lasted for ten more minutes until Felicia showed the team to a view of her village. Jacket was the one to walk in front of the team then walked through the trees to break out the leafy view. In a clear golden pasture, several brown tents in the distance ensnared his view. Felicia and Jaune walked out next and he was just as relieved as Jacket.

The people in the village appeared to have been of mixed descent. Humans and Faunus, several of the people worked diligently at the services they offered. Felicia smiled as she talked to the people she knew. JAWS instinctively walked along side each other while several of the people there stared at them.

From observation, Daniel noticed how the people were dressed in the village. The clothing they wore weren't a part of the brands offered back from the city. Each of it looked a bit more rugged while the same time something great to wear. A woman had a black shirt that appeared to look that it to be made of wool than cotton.

At the edges of Carla Village were noticeable sheep and goats with people to herd them as well.

"Hey look, Felicia's back. With friends?" A middle aged woman walked from her tent to say hello. JAWS introduced themselves while they were swarmed by more villagers. Several kids huddled around Jacket, as one of them tugged on his back which held Palm Sun. Jacket turned around then shot a glare at them to scare them off. Instead, several of the kids repeated his stare thinking it was some weird greeting of where Jacket came from.

_I didn't know he was good with kids._ Daniel looked around to see several the villagers look at each member of JAWS in a weird way. Several middle aged women inspected the boys while one of them took hold of Daniel's arm.

"Hmm… you're a fighter. Gooood…" …_Creepy_… Daniel thought as he noticed Felicia make her way through the crowd as several other girls circled around her. The team grew too preoccupied by the villagers than to rally behind Felicia.

"Who are these boys Fel?" A girl in her late teens asked Felicia. She was a Bobcat Faunus as she stood slightly taller than most girls her age.

"Yeah Fel."

"Just some Hunters I came across that need a scroll." Felicia looked back. "And they look just as good as they do under the clothes."

"What do you mean?" The Bobcat faunus girl inched closer to Felicia.

"You know how men envision women at watering holes? Well the opposite happened and the blonde one over there is rocking a barely noticeable six pack." Felicia smiled at her friends. "Every one of them are the real deal."

"How's the one in the jacket?" The second friend asked.

"I don't know, he was the only one that didn't show off the goods." Felicia frowned slightly.

The girls giggled and continued to walk deeper into the village.

After several minutes, the kids of the village grew bored and dispersed to do their own thing. Jacket shook it off as several of the villagers naturally avoided him. Daniel stood beside him while the two watched over the people. Jacket flicked out his recorder to see it looked to have been almost dry. He pressed several buttons to see if he could get his recorder working again.

"Bbllllrrt, Bosh do roanbo." Jacket shook his head. Ahead of them Jaune and Wolfe made their way through the crowd to see that there was a small market. Jaune waved at Daniel to give him a heads up that they were on the move. Daniel turned to Jacket.

"How do you feel?" Daniel asked.

Jacket looked at Daniel. He pulled his lip back for a half-hearted smile. He held the recorder out. He shook it again when he knew it was fruitless to do so. He rolled his eyes as a middle aged man noticed Jacket's possession.

"Hey there young man." Jacket blinked then turned to the source of the call. There was a middle aged man. His hair was of a darkened silver had a rectangular moustache. As far as Daniel could tell, he appeared more human than faunus.

"Is that the D series Walkman?"

Jacket widened his eyes and nodded. His lips weren't pursed as before.

"I heard about them back from how those machines were invaluable during the Freedom Wars. Invent by Nobutoshi Kihara, who wanted to have something to take the music during his long trips while with his tribe. They spread out like wildfire for the masses and to carry music with them around Remnant. It helped those depressed by the War to cope with the constant news of the world. I know, because my grand uncle kept a journal of one and this one looks like it's just a replica but something I want to own. Come with me."

Daniel and Jacket looked at each other.

_Hey, let's hear the guy out._ Daniel repeated his thought a moment later. The two followed the man as several the villagers returned to their own devices.

Forty-Feet away.

Wolfe and Jaune walked beside one another as several traders approached the two with various wares. Some with jewelry and the many of the traders gave their sales pitches.

"Where's Felicia?" Jaune scanned the area.

"I don't know." Wolfe looked down. "Hey, are you tired of wearing damp clothes?"

"Oh yeah."

Without much to say, Wolfe reached for his lower back to pull out his tool box. He kneeled down to the ground then he opened a secret compartment. Inside was a roll of lien and he stood up while sliding it to his front pocket.

Wolfe and Jaune looked around the market for some supplies.

Jacket and Wolfe moved about a dozen yards further away as the man entered his own tent. Jacket and Daniel looked at one another as Jacket shrugged. Then the team walked into the tent.

Inside, were several stacks of old electronics and cassettes of the past and some of them had labels from way back from 30 years ago. The man opened an old box then laughed as he found what he looked for. He turned around with a strange looking tape recorder.

This is the GT3 series. It's a bit more recent as it became the final brand since cassettes became obsolete. I don't fancy it very much as I like the older models." The man turned around. "I would like to trade for your recorder for mine."

Jacket smiled as he reached forward, the man allowed Jacket to test the GT3.

"VRT, Hola, ert not bad." The recorder played. Daniel noticed that Jacket looked pleased as he continued to check he features.

"EeerrvvVT, Arms Outstretched." Jacket liked the ring of the sound that came from the GT-3. He looked at the man. "vvERT, Why?" Jacket pointed at the GT3 then back to his D-Series.

"I appreciate the older forms of technology. Simple as that."

Jacket smiled.

"Okay well the D-Series for the GT3. Does that sound fair?" The man clarified.

Jacket held his left hand up. "VRT, Not fair."

The man narrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Daniel explained on Jacket's behalf that the D series doesn't work. It suffered a lot of water damage.

"I don't care about that. I want it because I want it in my collection."

Jacket started to remove his well, leather jacket. Jack offered his jacket to the man. The man took the jacket and tried it on. It was a perfect fit for him. It was a little tight around the collar.

Jack pointed at the GT3. "Vrt, Newer and easier. Errt, Now fair."

The man offered his hand and Jacket accepted it. The two traded and the man smiled at Jacket.

_It looks like Jacket doesn't like to screw other people on deals._

"The name's Chet. Thank you for the trade."

Daniel explained their names and several seconds after. Jacket and Daniel heard their names being called by Wolfe.

"We gotta go." Daniel pointed out as he and Jacket left the tent while Chet waved at them.

The two walked out then Daniel noticed Jaune and Wolfe in different clothes along with a plastic bag of their normal ones. Jaune walked Daniel and offered a stack of clothes.

"We had to guess your sizes. There's a trader that has a small tent for you to change in.

"Thanks."

"Vrt, Thank you very much." Jacket waved as he carried his own clothes.

"Hey Huntsmen." Felicia called out as he turned around.

"Hey, I had a go all over the village to find my aunt. Here, you can use this to make a call for your buddies." Felicia offered satellite scroll.

"Thanks." Jaune dialed a number and walked away by ten feet. Wolfe entered a conversation with Felicia.

The scroll gave the dial tone the ring. It rung for another seven seconds.

"Uh, hello?" Tired Bile answered.

"Hey Bile, it's Jaune. Listen, my team and I need pickup. Not in a combat situation mind you. It's just that we need a ride back to Beacon Academy."

Bile yawned then rubbed his eyelids. "Sure, just forward the coordinates."

Jaune told Bile the directions to go for them. It would be about 3 to hours before Bile could make it to JAWS. The team gathered together for Jaune to tell them of how long the team will have to wait. The team learned that several of the villagers had food vender and Wolfe passed out some lien to help in the wait.

Shortly after that, JAWS was asked all around of helping around with various chores with the villagers. Jacket was asked to kill an Ursa Minor with several Beowolves that was harassing the town and Jaune went as well to be backup. The village's Hunters are out to kill a Death Stalker and Nevermore 20 kilometers away. Wolfe went to all the engineers of the village to talk technical stuff. And Daniel spent his time alone to see various foods and see if he could get his hands to help make a meal. All of them spent their time getting to know the villagers until Bile called in since his arrival was close.

Jacket got a good workout and was paid in food by the people. Wolfe spent more time teaching the techies of the village of tricks to do with tools. Jaune was barraged by questions since the youths wanted to know more about the Hunters. Daniel had a grand old time making stew with the middle aged women. When it was done, the elderly cook teased that Daniel would make a great wife to some lucky woman. He brushed her off on the thought.

Bile saw the village form his cockpit then landed after a minute of searching for a landing site.

The team walked on board of their airship.

"Thanks for the help. I'll be sure to repay the favor." Jaune waved to Felicia and her aunt. _He'll keep that promise_. Daniel nodded while he looked out the people. Each member said their goodbyes.

"Sure. Take care JAWS." The doorway of the airship closed.

"They're nice people." Wolfe said as he sat down.

"Yeah, hey thanks for the pickup Bile." Jaune called out.

"No problem. Since this isn't a life threatening job, my regular rate will be at half today."

"Appreciate it." The team walked around and each sat on the chairs that went along the wall of the airship. The team relaxed for the next twenty minutes. Jacket closed his eyes for a nap while Daniel inspected Phantom Breaker.

"Alright." Now that we're still alive and away from the village, I would like to discuss our next move." Jaune got the point.

"Sure." Daniel put his weapon away.

Wolfe nodded then he leaned to his left and gently shook Jacket's legs for him to wake up. Jacket shook his head then rubbed his eyes.

"Okay then. I'll just say it, we've been extremely lucky so far. I mean, we were able to take down the Comminssar, do our job in the Mendoza Fields, and now this White Fang Train. So, now we know that the White Fang have plenty of hardware to do something that will probably kill a lot of people. So what do you want to do?"

"Well, we're hunters. Isn't our duty to tell the Atlas Military about the danger the White Fang pose?" Wolfe asked in return.

"I don't think that'll do any good. The reason for it is that we have to assume that General Ironwood is probably aware already. I mean, he has an entire battalion garrisoned in Vale. He's probably waiting for some kind of sign to send his forces in." Daniel summited his two cents.

"If we tell him ourselves, he might just tell us to fuck off and allow him to take over." Wolfe placed his hand over his chin to dive into deep thought.

"Verrrt, Danger eeert, too great vrt, for assumptions." Jacket smiled at the use of his new recorder.

"We don't know that." Daniel shot back.

"I think he would. We're freshmen and the school will not allow us to conduct an investigation." Wolfe moved his hand away from his face. "Also, we're not the ideal combat team in the eyes of the Academy."

Jaune and Daniel let the silence be their answer to the statement.

"Do any of you think we can really go toe to toe against people like team CFVY or RWBY? We're not on their level. Even the Vanguards proved to be tough, and the last time I checked, they outnumbered us. For now, I think we have to assume they were pulling their punches since the Vanguards weren't expecting us and we didn't expect them." Wolfe stated.

_It's clear that Wolfe is just being a realist than a cynic._ Daniel noticed that Jaune had a counterpoint.

"Then that's why we'll get better, since our enemies will underestimate us and we'll use that against them." Jaune answered. Daniel noticed that Jaune looked rather self-assured. His shoulders weren't drooped down and his back was straight.

"That's a rather shitty advantage." Wolfe scoffed. "By the way, how did you even know about the Vanguards?"

"I met one when on a job I did for Cinder. I didn't recognize him in the ones we fought today though…" Jaune looked back at his team. "I think we need to talk this out."

"What are you getting at?" Daniel asked.

"We're the Payday Gang; the public already thinks we're the bad guys while some of the people in the underworld see us as an opportunity. Hector wants our help and so does this Vlad guy." Jaune leaned forward. "What I'm getting at is saying that we build our way as the bad guys to get the bad guys. Ironwood is waiting for a war to start. I say we figure out what's happening and see if we can prevent that from happening. Either way, we at least tried to do something about all of this."

"That actually makes sense." Wolfe looked around.

"You mean, we gather intelligence and if we can't do something about the White Fang, we'll give it to Atlas?" Daniel needed clarification.

"Yeah, I didn't know how to word it like that but yes, we gather as much information as we can then see if we can stop what the White Fang has planned."

"Doing something like that will require a lot of hardware. That means we'll need more equipment, expand our arsenal, and make a wider network." Wolfe pondered the thought. "At the same time, we have a lot of expenses to cover."

"So we have to do jobs for some people, get paid then use our finances to help us stop the White Fang." Daniel pointed out for himself. "Why can't we do this without our masks?"

"If the White Fang know who we are, then that'll mean they can prepare for us, watch our every move, and probably plot to kill us." Jaune's expression did not waver. "Even if we did hunt for them as ourselves, I think it's a risky idea."

"This whole plan you have is risky." Wolfe looked at Jaune. "But I'm in."

"Do you really have to ask Jaune?" Daniel spoke for himself and Jacket.

"Oh I'm sorry. How do you feel about this Jacket?"

"EerttT, Fine by me."

"So we have an idea of what do. When we get back, we all get a well-deserved nap and food. After that, we'll plan out our next job. Sound good?"

The team accepted the thought.

_I wonder if TJ Abyss is alright_. Daniel waved to Jaune to borrow his scroll from the village.

Beacon Academy

"Alright we have a small team of freshmen out there that are probably scared, alone, and in danger. We need to move quickly to-"

_ Ring ring_.

"Yes headmaster?"

…

"Oh? Well that's good news. Thank you." TJ Abyss closed his scroll and looked out to the other three Huntsmen he gathered for a rescue operation.

"Hey uh, everyone, the team made it out in time and they're all okay." TJ Abyss looked out.

"Oh thank dust. Just be sure next time alright, TJ?" An extremely buff man with a scarf over his mouth and he had a headband over his forehead. All around his upper body was a series of black tattoos that look in the shape of Tiger.

"Sorry Jago." TJ looked back and took a deep breath while his teammates all separated to go back to see if students needed a huntsmen to oversee their missions. TJ Abyss looked down and nodded. He looked at his scroll to see that another team accepted a mission his region and so TJ bumped his fists and walked to the auditorium to help train the next generation.

**Well this chapter is finally done. Sorry about the delay this time. A lot of things in my life happened in recent weeks. This is your final chance to vote because the job for Vlad starts in the next chapter. The tally current is:**

**O votes for the Stag Beetle.**

**5 votes for the Dozer Rush.**

**5 votes for the Kamikaze Droids.**

**For those of you who are interested MrStark357 is offering his services as an editor to this who ask. The work he submits is very thorough as he likes to show you where specific areas the chapter could use work. I highly recommend asking him in case you need help for your story.**

**Thank you for reading.**

**Mr. Green37:** Yeah the rivalry will be fun for the future. Well thank you for reading.

**DonCarlos: **Thank you for enjoying the story and making a voice of it. Well, I we'll have to continue the story to see if there's an answer to your question.

**CrimsonHersey: **The fight for me took a rather long time, but I'm glad you like the outcome of it. Yep, Jaune played his cards right for this outcome at the moment. I wondered if people would like that line. So now the list of enemies are expanding and it's fun to see how this will turn out.

**Iandude: **The rivalry is pretty fun to write. Yeah that would be pretty odd to meet like that. Well, I have an editor now and I'll try to improve myself even further.

**Ghost-407: **Awesome, thank you for voting.

**Guest: **Thank you for compliment. I like to write the action scenes. The same for Jaune and Cinder's interaction.


	27. Chapter 27, The Goofball and Kamikazes

**I'm finally back with my new chapter. I know I missed my own deadline and I had a chapter completely done but it wasn't edited. So I decided to break the deadline just so I could have a better version of this chapter for you readers today. Again, I appreciate your support. The songs for this chapter will be "**Breakpoint**" by Garth Night and "**Fuse Box**" of the Payday 2 soundtrack.**

**First Track: ** watch?v=opZ1-rUFYMk

**Second Song: ** watch?v=QP56-MKDxLY

**Special Thanks to MrStark357 for Beta reading and editing.**

"Mmm, come here sexy." Wolfe's mouth watered and his head curled into his pillow. "Steak, you're always so tasty."

.

..

…

_KLAK KLAK KLAK!_

"WAKE UP, TIME TO WAKE UP WOLFEY!" Daniel shouted while banging on a pot with a metal spoon.

Wolfe's eyes darted around as he rolled onto his stomach while the pot leaned in closer to his ears. He rolled out his bed then covered his ears with his pillow.

"Fuck off!" Wolfe shouted under his pillow.

"Nope and too bad."

Wolfe moved his pillow then squinted at his clock. "It's 4:30 in the morning dick muncher."

"I know, we must have over slept." Daniel finally stopped with the pot and spoon.

At the door, Jacket rubbed his eyes as he stared in.

"What the hell is this about?" Wolfe asked as he rubbed his eyes.

"Remember when Jaune and I talked about getting you two on a training regimen? Well, that starts today and nothing you say will change it." When he stopped talking, he heard the sounds of a rustling plastic. Daniel pointed his spoon at Jacket.

"And you, no more morning candy bars."

Jacket pulled his arms apart with a 'come on gesture.'

"I already moved your stash from the freezer into a secret place." Daniel smirked for Jacket to widen his eyes.

"I know you could just go out and buy more, but I will find it, then move it." Daniel smirked.

Jacket frowned as he took a bite of his candy bar. So what if he likes to eat all the time, he makes sure to finish everything. He walked away without a care in the world.

"I also moved your Super Nintendo. No more Battle Toads for you unless you come out with us." Daniel stated. Several seconds later, Jacket was back at the door with his tape recorder.

"I'll let you two get ready." Daniel smiled as he walked out of Wolfe's room. "Be sure to put on something comfortable."

Wolfe adjusted himself so he sat at the floor. It was too late for him to go back to sleep. Jacket waved for Wolfe to look at him.

"RRrrt, This is some bull-shit!" Jacket frowned.

"Yeah no kidding." Wolfe replied while he got to his feet.

It took ten minutes for the both of them to walk out in miss matching clothes for their supposed exercise. Daniel stood in front of them with a dark blue exercise shirt, black work out shorts, with dark blue and white athletic shoes. There was a red backpack with several supplies that he needed. Water bottles, emergency bandages and a scroll to make calls.

Jacket wore mustard yellow tank top with a white undershirt and brown carpenter pants that had a custom pocket for his recorder. Daniel nagged him to wear bright colors and Jacket small note about Jacket. He just likes to wear a layer or two of shirts.

Wolfe had purple sweat pants and a black t-shirt he doesn't mind getting dirty for whatever hellish thing Daniel had planned.

"You ready?" Daniel asked.

"Vrt, you're a jerk."

"Let's get started." Daniel walked in front of them, he clearly ignored the comment.

Daniel led the two outside. The frigid air greeted them along with the droning sound of cars in the distance. The dark hue of the sky reflected the cold nature of their hearts as Daniel forced them to jog.

"EEeevvt, Where's Juane?"

"Back at Beacon, he's gathering the stuff for the job." Daniel replied as he led the team down the sidewalk.

"Lucky bastard." Wolfe grumbled.

The first day was as grueling as some would expect. Daniel didn't break a sweat for the first 10 blocks. Jacket however, already started to sweat off his candy bar, Wolfe hated to run so much since he never needed to in the past. So the both of them needed this for what the future held for them.

After 10 minutes, they made it to a park that had several other joggers out and about. The park had long sidewalks that overlooked the fields and small ponds all around. Several benches were vacant that Wolfe wished he could claim.

"Come on, we're starting off with 5 laps before your first break." Daniel waved at them to follow.

Wolfe groaned as he started to run, while Jacket rolled his eyes as well. Daniel knew that several laps around the park was enough to be considered a mile in distance. It didn't bug him. He could run the mile in 5 minutes and 23 seconds. He glanced at his watch to see the time. It was 8 minutes and 49 seconds. This won't cut it.

"Alright stop." Daniel ordered.

Jacket stopped first and Wolfe second. Jacket didn't pant with his mouth as he controlled his breathing with his nose. Wolfe exhaled through his mouth and breathed from his nose.

_At least they have their breathing under control._ Daniel opened his bag for him to reach in for water bottles. He tossed them out.

"Don't just stand around, walk off this lap and be sure to finish those bottles." Daniel looked glanced at his scroll to see that he had a message from Jaune.

How's it going with the guys? –Jaune.

Great we're just getting started but still. –Daniel.

…Ten seconds later…

K, B sure to take it easy on them. –Jaune.

Daniel closed his scroll the put it back in his bag to catch up with the others. It would be another 20 minutes until sunrise.

Beacon Academy.

Jaune stared at his scroll. It was a nice morning to go with what he'll have to do today. It's been one day since JAWS returned from their mission. Of course, in dealing with something new and dangerous, the headmaster would be informed about it. TJ Abyss told Ozpin about the White Fang.

Jaune walked to his bathroom then recalled what happened.

To cut it short. Ozpin congratulated them on coming back home alive. TJ Abyss was impressed but Ozpin wouldn't know what to think of team JAWS until TJ submits his report. There wasn't anything for him to discuss with the team besides asking them to keep quiet about the White Fang presence they found. Supposedly, General Ironwood is already looking into it. Jaune agreed to the terms and JAWS was allowed to leave without the need of recourse.

The light flickered as one of the five bulbs in the bathroom died out. Jaune thought there wasn't a need to change it out. Since 4 bulbs already seem to be too much.

From there, what Ozpin informed JAWS only confirmed their suspicions. Ironwood, knows of the White Fang but no drastic action has been taken besides moving an army to the academy.

From that evening team JAWS did nothing heist related as they all went out to eat at the Noodle stand down town. After that, they went home and Jaune spent the night on Wolfe's couch. The next day they all did something around Vale to kill the time for half the day. When each of them confirmed that there wasn't any surveillance on them. The team converged to Wolfe's house. They walked into the garage with a fold out table to discuss their plan.

The place of where Vlad wanted them to go was the Mark Diego bank. Since the team accepted the job and before they left on their mission. Jaune paid Bain to acquire the blueprints to the layout of the bank.

It has 8 active cameras, several overlooking the crowd for the tellers, about a dozen windows and all around. The design of it is aimed around for there to be a view from the cubicle workers to the tellers. The tellers have their own space that has emergency shutters made of metal be used to protect them in case of danger. The value required a well-adapted thermal drill which Wolfe won't have trouble building.

The issue is the ability to get away. Since around the bank is nothing but a wide open sidewalk to the street. So if their cover were to be blown too early, that means they'll be surrounded and possibly picked off by snipers. So the whole thing was pretty damn risky. But Vlad is offering 170,000 if the job can be pulled off. Much less than what the team made in the past, but it's necessary for building a decent relationship with the gangster.

It took some thought and the team would need to enter and leave the bank under seven minutes before the situation could become impossible.

Wolfe made a list of the equipment he'll need and the team planned out their attack strategy. When the basic ideas were down, they realized they talked for 3 hours. Daniel and Jacket said they would make several plans for the job. Such as mapping out the attack and escape routes. Wolfe walked into the garage to work on the equipment. Jaune left Wolfe's house then returned to his dorm.

When he got back to the dorm, all he found was that Nora and Ren watched a movie. Jaune tried to kill some time with a comic book, Pyrrha took it out of his hands. Jaune was forced to train some more on the rooftop. The clashing swords flashed and like always, Pyrrha beat him several times but she mentioned that she noticed some improvement from him.

They clashed swords and during the fight. Jaune seemed to have been a bit more aggressive than he usually was. Normally Jaune was defensive and planned his attacks. This time, Jaune guided Pyrrha on several slashes to how he wanted to fight her. It didn't work of course but it was new to Pyrrha. The risk showed her that Jaune is ready to make new snap decisions which in this case didn't help him much. She parried his attack as he lost balance for her to trip him and waved her sword to his throat. It was a good session with her team leader.

They talked more of the time progressing as Hunters. Well it more of a simple lecture of the current flaws and improvements Jaune has. The improvements started to outweigh the flaws. Pyrrha yawned as she fanned her mouth. They agreed to stop the session for tonight. Jaune went back to the door first.

In the twenty seconds when Jaune entered the room, he stripped out of his hoodie and pants for him to slip into his onesie. Jaune went to bed and didn't think much of anything as he dropped to his bed to get some sleep.

Now modern time.

"Blllarrrggg gggggrrrruuuuggggle." Jaune rinsed his teeth with mouthwash then he spat it into the sink.

Jaune looked into the mirror to see several darkened lines under his eyes. He got enough sleep but it felt like it wasn't enough. Like his body needed more time to sleep. He shrugged to himself. Meh, he'll just go to bed early tonight.

He started to inspect his teeth and it looked alright from what he could tell. Jaune looked away from the mirror as he reached for some soap to wash his hands.

_I need to work on my swordsmanship. Pyrrha keeps beating me and in turn… Adam_. Jaune recalled the flashes of a red katana.

_If Yang_ _were here, she would've made a wisecrack at my expense._ Jaune finished washing his hands. He walked out to see that Pyrrha's bed was empty like how it normally was in the mornings.

The sound of the birds outside that chirped as the dim blue light started off the brand new day. The sun started to shine brightly, the birds sung, and the current student count was that of a ghost town… Something didn't feel right to him. He wasn't sure what it was though.

Jaune walked out of the bathroom to see that NPR was still asleep. He didn't see the need to do anything at the moment so he thought why not just go for a walk? The morning air was always intoxicating to a willing nose. It reminded him of the time when Abagail Arc dragged him outside to be moral support in training for the school's track team. Jaune dressed in some casual clothing. Blue jeans, his brown shoes, and a black V neck t-shirt.

Pyrrha was out and about for her routine and Jaune didn't want to make invade that kind of personal space for her. He knew it could be used to help him improve athletically… it's just that, it felt like Jaune was bringing her down. To take the time to help some moron on stuff he should already know.

He felt like that Daniel wasn't the only one who felt that way. What's the point to keep a person who's going to hold the team back? SHDW was wrong about Daniel, while for JNPR. It might be justified.

Several sparks ignited in Jaune's head… the night of when Daniel poured his heart out to several complete strangers… of what Nathan did to Daniel. Jaune felt that sure he was a decent person. What kind of people would be willing to hang out with a loser?

Loser… Idiot… Retard… Hobo…

The names of what other kids called him from his younger years echoed in his mind.

Jaune always was one to be used for his kindness. It was his second nature, to be a kind heart to those he would interact with. In the beginning it was mostly by his sisters but they're family so it was a rule for Jaune to never say 'no' to them. As much as he wanted to, he had to be there them. It was a rather happy life, always loved and expressing it to all seven of them. Then school started.

He wasn't a man.

He wasn't smart.

Jaune Arc was a loser to the kids at school.

He made sure to keep it a secret to his sisters. His mom assumed it was just part of his time growing up. Something to grow out of. His dad thought it was that Jaune had girl troubles.

"What women like, are men of confidence. Show them that you'll be there for them. To be show that you don't worry of the danger as long as you help other people." His dad glanced to his right. "It worked on your mother." Jaune recalled the words his dad spewed in front of mom before she would punch him.

So with that, Jaune looked into the past of his family. How the Arcs are noble, caring, and generally idols. So that leaves Jaune to be the Odd One Out. Or 'Triple O' as he liked to call himself.

It continued that way until Jaune grew frustrated. His sisters knew something was up, but countless times, Jaune refused to let them be infected by his problems. Jaune tuned the bullies out, he kept it that way until 4 months before coming to Beacon. The Arc family received a transcript letter from various Hunter Academies of Remnant. Of course the Dad and Mom were okay with the idea.

However, none of the newest daughters of the Arc Generation expressed interest into becoming full-fledged Huntresses. Jaune recalled the images of what Hunters could be.

The ideal heroines and heroes. The Arcs are part of that image already. But mom and dad were perfectly fine if the Arc family skipped a generation. That didn't sit well with Jaune.

Goofball… Loser… Idiot… Retard… Hobo… were the words that echoed in Jaune's head the moment he forged his parent's signatures and information. By the time it was over. Jaune felt like he was on top of Remnant.

The Goofball that was the end of kid's Jokes.

The Loser was from a family of Champions.

The Idiot did something that tested his Bravery.

The Retard was dumb enough to try to become a Hunter.

The Hobo… well there isn't really a good line for Jaune to make up with that insult… but still, Jaune did something that even surprised himself.

Then the response came. Jaune was accepted into Beacon Academy. He dodged his sisters about the change in his life. There he was, constantly rereading the letter of acceptance.

"Do you want be a Hunter?" Jaune's mother called out to him. Her voice made Jaune's heart sink…

Jaune felt his heart skip a beat and hid the letter at his back. He looked down and avoided eye contact. He slid the letter into his back pocket.

"It's okay Jaune." His mother entered his room.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know what I was thinking." Jaune replied.

"It's OKAY."

"I just wanted to do something about me." His eyes remained on the floor.

"Jaune. We all know you're unhappy." His mom said at last. "We know there's something bothering you and your sisters haven't been themselves since you started to feel this way."

Jaune kept his eyes to the ground.

"I talked about it with your father… and we agreed that we should let you attend Beacon Academy." Jaune turned to her.

"We want the light in our son's eyes back. None of us have seen you this determined about something since you were very little. This might help you and we want you to go to Beacon."

Jaune opened his mouth for her to hush him. "The dangers are very real, that we know Jaune. But there's something you should know. There are many difficult things that will await you when you leave. Just know that all of here in this house will love you. No matter what happens. All those times you used to play with a stick as a sword… your grandpa loved you for it."

Jaune recalled Reginald Arc, his grandpa. Jaune was about 5 years old when he passed away but the memory of him was still there for Jaune. When the two would just be together, Reginald had Jaune in his lap and told him the most wonderful stories. Then one day, Jaune had a stick be used as his noble sword. There were so many times that Jaune wished he could have known Reginald longer than he did.

There was a knock at the door.

Jaune and his mother both looked at the doorway to see his dad.

"Hi honey." His dad smiled.

"Hey. I just told him about the discussion we had."

"Great." His dad nodded as he closed the door.

"Just be the man, we know you can be Jaune." His dad smiled.

Jaune took several steps back as he stared at the ground. While he did so, his parents walked together side by side. His dad wrapped his left arm around his wife, then they looked at their son.

…

Jaune felt a wave relief wash over him. The buried emotion seeped out of him in tears.

…

He didn't say a word as he walked to his parents' embrace. With the biggest hug he's given in his life.

"Thank you." Jaune said in a muffled tone. "I won't let you down."

"We know son." His dad rubbed his back. "We're already proud of the person you are."

…

Jaune wept into their shoulders.

…

He pulled away when he had enough.

"Just a warning. You know this will break your sisters' hearts?" His mom laughed to herself.

"Have fun going through that minefield." His dad waved his index finger as he walked across the room.

"We know that might be a little old school but, your grandpa wanted you to have this." His dad walked across the room to a desk. He kneeled down then came back up with the Arc family weapon and shield.

The Crocea Mors.

"It's yours." His dad presented it to Jaune, handle first. Jaune's eyes widened as he felt the weight of the sword. It was much lighter than he thought.

When Reginald passed away. Jaune's parents both decided to help Jaune with basic sword and shield training when he was seven. Had they known that Jaune would have wanted to be a Hunter, they would have had him be part of the local combat school. He practiced with a sword every now again but never fully. But something like this will help him in the long run.

The family emblem glowed in the sunlight as Jaune strapped it on his left forearm.

"This is your choice Jaune." His mother spoke calmly.

…

"I want to be a Hunter."

"Make us even prouder." His dad smiled with his pearly teeth.

That night, Jaune brought all of his sisters to the main living room of the house. There with a deep breath, he explained to them of what he was going to do. None of them interrupted him and just absorbed all of what he could explain. After a good twenty minutes, Jaune finished his statement, they mob rushed him to the ground. There was hugging, crying, and understanding.

He left home two weeks later. During those two weeks, every sister took as much time as they could to spend with their brother. They expressed their concerns and love. It was hectic. There was a lot of cooking, play, words, and concerns. Every one of them didn't want their brother to leave but each of them knew he needed a change. At the end of it those two weeks, Jaune was given a sky blue onesie that was stitched together by every one of them. A parting gift to Beacon. When it was time to leave, Jaune couldn't help but see smiles when he stood outside of an airship station. With a ticket in his pocket to Beacon his pocket. Jaune shed a final tear while the sight of his home was consumed by the clouds.

…..

Jaune took a deep breath and blinked. There he was on a park bench again in the main courtyard. The freshness of his breath tickled in the wind. All he could hear were the gentle waves of the leaves and tree branches.

_Vvvrrt Vvvrrt_. Jaune's scroll vibrated.

So far so good. Wolfe and Jack aren't complaining that much anymore. –Daniel.

Jaune laughed at his imagination.

I think you just broke them. Tell me how it goes late. –Jaune. He closed his scroll.

"Hey Jaune?" Someone called out to him.

Jaune turned to the voice to see a team walk to him. Each of them looked like freshmen. At least they had a middle ground.

"Hi." Jaune nodded to them.

"Hi, well we're team SVER." A boy with amber hair approached Jaune. He had a black shirt long sleeve shirt and he pressed his hand against his chest. The introduction was kept to be simple. He had brown carpenter pants on with blue shoes. "I'm the leader, my name is Benjamin Silverton. Or you could call me Ben for short."

Ben pointed his hand to a girl to his left. "I'm Katherine Vickers." She said in a light tone. There was a very noticeable scar that went from the center her left cheek to her right eyebrow. She noticed Jaune staring at it so she spoke up. "A Beowulf did this. Don't worry, I got the last laugh though."

"I'm Eric Dover." A somewhat chubby boy with dark skin waved. He had a blue bandana wrapped around his forehead, a blue shirt, and black pants. His weapon was a broadsword. Similar to Jaune's sword.

"Rebecca Gold." The last member bowed. Her hair was of a darkened green and she was dressed in a grey crop top shirt with a black shorts. She had a crossbow on her back. As well as a container of bolts at her lower back.

"Listen. We need some help with some practice for the tournament. You think you could help us out?" Ben stepped forward to Jaune.

_Really? Me?_ Jaune smiled. "Sure I can help. Let me just get my weapon."

"We'll be at the arena." Katherine shrugged as she looked out to her teammates.

Jaune jogged to his dorm with a big smile on his face. Besides his teams and RWBY, no one ever asked for his help before at Beacon. Maybe, just maybe his behavior changed for the better. Well, that doesn't mean he can slack off either for SVER. When Jaune walked into the dorm, Ren was already up and had another one of Jaune's comic books in hand. Nora slept upside down as her head leaned off the edge of bed. He smiled to Ren as he grabbed Crocea Mors and left the room. He hastily made his way to the arena in less than seven minutes.

Jaune stumbled on his last step as he entered the front doors of the arena.

"I'm here."

"Wow." Katherine looked to her team with a nod. Jaune didn't think much of the comment as he calmed down at the staircase. He took the direct route to the bottom floor.

"So what does this team need help with?" Jaune smiled.

"We just need help with planning out our attacks and to see if they'll work of not."

"Okay cool." Jaune accepted the plan. "So who am I helping out first?"

"That'll be me." Rebecca walked out from the group with her weapon in hand. At her back she drew a combat knife along with a bladed boomerang.

"Think fast!" Rebecca tossed her knife at Jaune's upper chest. He lifted his sheath in time for the boomerang to bounce off and cut a lock of his hair off. Then when Crocea Mors was drawn, Rebecca already closed the distance.

She punched him in the center of the chest and in the confusion, hooked her left leg behind his right leg and shoved him back to stare at the ceiling.

"I think that attack requires more to it at the end." Rebecca bowed down for Jaune to catch his breath.

"The boomerang needs to come at a different angle." Jaune coughed as he turned to his side to push himself up to get on his feet again. "If you angle it to come in from behind, that'll leave your opponent to go forward or the sides. Plenty of moves for you to manipulate." He didn't bother to brush himself off.

Jaune had his sword tap the side of his shield two times. "What else you got?"

Rebecca nodded to Jaune as Eric passed the boomerang to her. She went through several more drills with Jaune that usually had him end up on his back.

"I think you need to take the offensive more." Rebecca suggested as she rested her left hand on her hip.

"Working on it." Jaune rolled to his side again.

"I think I want to go next." Ben walked out. His weapon was a long staff that had several joints for his weapon modifications to shift. The thing operated as snipe rifle without a clip. So it meant he had to bolt every shot he would make.

The sword of Jaune shined off as he smiled a goofy grin as Ben prepared himself.

As Jaune took one step, Ben's weapon went to gun from and struck the ground to halt Jaune's advance. Jaune knew that a lung attack would happen so he looked toward the ceiling to see Ben in the air poised to strike. Jaune brought his shield up to block it and he shoved forward to make Ben stumble. Jaune had the upper hand until Ben brought his left fist around to hit his forehead and the staff poked him in the back. Then Ben hooked Jaune's sweater and then hoisted him into the air and tossed to the ground to his back.

_This'll probably break my back_. Jaune recalled the time when he helped Weiss for him to absorb the fall back in the initiation trial.

"Good counter. Just need work on to have an effective method of reloading." Jaune raised his hand to the ceiling as he laid on the ground. "I think I'll still this one out."

SVER didn't mind that as each of them paired up. Jaune walked to a corner of the arena to get his bearings back. Above in the darkened bleachers, three students still at the Academy decided to watch the training below. Each of them were women and were first years as well. The shadow of the place kept them from distracting team SVER and Jaune.

"Look at 'em, what chu' think?" A brash feminine voice asked in a low tone.

"I don't know, I mean, each of them have like no team synergy at all." A different voice responded.

"Let's just watch. The blonde one down there looks like he's getting back up." The third one spoke up.

Jaune walked out into the open as he felt better. He still didn't know how to work his aura but he'll be fine. At least he hoped.

"Well let's keep this going." Jaune smiled while Katherine stepped forth to challenge him.

"Alright there Mr. Arc." Katherine cooed. Her weapon as a claw in the shape of Beowulf's claw. While on the opposite hand. A three bladed gauntlet clashed with her claws for them to spark. "Show me what you got Bub."

Jaune charged forward as Katherine did the same. She crossed her claws since Jaune made the first move. He slashed at her claws, then shoved his shield forward to possibly break her guard and then Jaune thrusted his sword forward to hopefully get through. It didn't work since Katherine moved her claws apart. The sword went was still in Jaune's had as he still able to back off from the counter attack. She moved forward for Jaune to go completely on the defensive. Her attacks came at him as if she was a boxer, several haymakers, hooks, and straights were simple for Jaune to see to move his shield in time.

It kept up that way as she looked to the ceiling and roared. She was tired of Jaune blocking and now she was pissed. Her claw movement seemed to have increased in speed and Jaune started to have trouble keeping up.

"It's over!" Katherine jumped at Jaune and brushed her aside with his shield. The thing was, Katherine latched on and tackled him to the ground. This time Jaune was on his stomach.

"Try harder." Katherine said as she rolled forward and flicked her claws.

Jaune felt his heart rate speed up and he felt the sweat really come at him this time round. Not that Ben or Rebecca was any easier.

"You're attack patterns get pretty predicable. You mastered your claws but I you need to mix up your attacks." _Kinda felt like I fought a pissed off Beowulf._

Jaune stood up again. "I'm ready for ya Eric."

Eric smiled as he drew his weapon… it was a folding chair. That also turned to a grenade dispenser. So to get started, Eric tossed a grenade into the air that produced smoke. It filled up the area Jaune and Eric stood at. Jaune's shield didn't raise in time as the chair hit is right shoulder. From there another grenade dropped to send Jaune to roll of the smoke. It was a low yield grenade that forced him to move. Dust happened to be Eric's main form of study. Once Jaune turned around, Eric charged at him.

Jaune and Eric went back and forth until the battle was over.

The final blow was struck by Eric as Jaune fell to his knees in exhaustion.

"Oh." Jaune panted for several seconds. In a brief recall of what happened during the match Jaune felt that he needed to speak up. "I think you could use more movement on your left leg. It locks into place as you do a stab or block. Someone could counter you about that."

"I see what you mean."

With all of that training, Jaune felt exhausted. His throat was dry but he felt good from it all. Maybe team SVER would make for a good sparring partner for JAWS. It was a nice thought.

"You all want water?" Jaune called out. "I got to use the restroom too. Be right back."

"Sure." Ben spoke for the team.

Jaune walked out the arena without trouble. In the locker room to the arena there would usually be several water bottles. It was a common curiosity for people at the arena to leave water bottles for each other for the next person who trains. After a quick visit to take care of his business. He washed his hands, nodded to himself and thought of the proposition for JAWS and SVER to train together. After visit to the table that had the water, he took a handful of six bottles in his arms. This'll be enough for them. Jaune walked to the corner. As the clashing metal sounds stopped. Jaune stopped himself at the corner so could gather the courage to say start off the conversation of training together.

"Jaune is a pretty terrible fighter from what I could tell." Katherine assumed.

"Well he isn't terrible, otherwise he probably would have been dead a long time ago." Eric shrugged. "I mean, have you seen that sword he has? I'm sure he was too poor to make something truly useful."

"Well he did call you two out pretty clearly." Rebecca commented.

"Oh shut up Rebecca. The only reason why we're _practicing _with that Loser is so you could get close to Daniel or Jack." Katherine responded.

"Come on guys, pipe down, he could hear you." Ben walked in front of them.

"As if, that Goofball doesn't have much going for him. Im sure the only reason why he's alive is because to the others that have to watch out for him." Katherine scoffed. "Maybe the headmaster feels the same why since he assigned a second team to protect that moron."

"He's still a good leader." Ben nodded.

"Whatever. Since Pyrrha just happens to be his partner doesn't mean a thing to you?" Eric chuckled.

"Oh hush you." Ben looked away as his cheeks started to flush. "I still loved that dress she wore back at the dance…"

"Well that idiot will probably be back soon. Let's get back to it." Rebecca lightly tossed her boomerang to herself.

Jaune sluggishly placed his back to the wall. All those names from the past echoed all over again. 'Goofball, loser and other names in his life.' Every label influenced him to purse his lips in defeat. Nothing could be heard over the reverberation of his paces in the hall. He left all the water bottles on the ground he stood at. All that time he spent with them and they thought about that of him. So much for being useful to SVER.

The memories flooded his mind. How he felt so ashamed to be himself and how he hid it from his sisters. His parents didn't know much about it, and how could Jaune let something like this get to him. Jaune took the long way out of the locker room. A direct exit to get back out into the hallway that lead to the bleachers. Jaune wondered around for several minutes with various thoughts in his head.

_What can I do?_

As Jaune thought that, he passed a single person in the hall.

"Yo." A voice called out to Jaune from his left.

He glanced at her as he did his usual expression of being the 'happy-go-lucky' Jaune everyone knew. The voice belonged to Aoife, the bassist player Jaune met back at Club Errera. Steven Hoxworth's cousin.

"Oh hey." Jaune replied in a calm tone.

"What's up, so you're the leader of Daniel's new team right?" Aoife walked backwards with him, but Jaune didn't walk to anywhere in particular.

"Yeah that's me." Jaune shrugged. "What about it? If you don't mind me asking."

"Nothing really, I thought I'd come by to say hi. So what's it like to lead the teams?"

"Hectic and tiring." Jaune recalled all the management he has to do now. Not to mention how he can't have favoritism or that'll leave the other team in a bad state. Not that it hasn't come that point yet… Just a worry that's always on the back of Jaune's mind.

"I heard that you and your team got in some trouble." Aoife turned around finally as she looked around. The halls seem so large without the student body to keep it crowded.

"We did, the Grimm weren't that bad. Jack got pegged a couple of times." Jaune said that as lightly as he could. In reality back when JAWS was at Clara Village, Jacket had a fresh cut along his arm from a Beowulf. He shrugged it off.

"I'll just cut to the chase. I watched you sparring with team SVER in the arena." Aoife stopped which Jaune did the same.

"I lost. No shock there." Jaune looked at the ground.

"Well, you were alone for that fight." Aoife added. "I heard what they had to say about ya."

Jaune nodded. "Yeah. So I'm just going to do something to blow off some steam."

"Good idea. So that you can wallow in self-pity."

"Huh?"

"You heard me, loser."

Jaune turned away.

"That's it? You're not going to lash back at me?" Aoife leaned her head back.

"I don't see the need to. Not that it'll do much good either." Jaune's shoulders lowered.

"Wow, didn't know you had such a fragile ego."

"Yep."

"So what? You're not going to call me a Bitch? Cunt? Whore?" Aoife stepped into Jaune's way.

"No, no and no."

"Well where I'm from Jauney, is that we make friends through harsh words and fists. Come one, you can do better."

"Then you're a real bitchy cunt who's probably a whore on the side during your free time." Jaune fired back.

"That's the spirit." Aoife walked with Jaune. "Come with me."

Aoife led Jaune down several halls out in a vacant garden that Jaune didn't even know about, and it was so close the training arena too. It had an orange orchid flowers and a tall tree. It was just a patch of garden surrounded by the building.

Aoife gestured for Jaune to stand in the middle of the walkway.

"Now let you heart out."

"I don't get it…"

"Cuss your fucking heart out."

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier."

"Shut up you pussy." Aoife punched Jaune in the shoulder.

"Ow. What was that for?" Jaune rubbed the spot of the punch.

"I can't hear you."

_Fine!_ Jaune mentally growled at her. He stared at the ground and heaved a heavy sigh and his eyes darted open. Then just like that, Jaune let the words flow out of inner canals of his psyche.

"What the fuck was that for?"

"Louder."

"What the FUCK was that for!?" Jaune shouted to her.

"LOUDER!" Aoife shoved Jaune several steps back.

"FUCK YOU, AOIFE!"

"That's what I want to hear. Let it out Jaune. Come on, I know you need it. Let me hear you FUCKING say it."

"I fucking hate the way people see me as some dumbass retard. To be looked down like some beaten jerkoff in the dirt. I hate how I'm looked down upon like a piece of shit! What the hell did I do to deserve this treatment!? I'm FUCKING MAD… no FURIOUS! FUCK them and FUCK you!" Jaune's voice cracked at the end…

Jaune looked at the small garden. From all that hot air, he panted several times. His throat felt stretched and slightly sore. Aoife slightly nodded her head for him. From what he just shouted at her, that feeling must have some merit.

"It's okay Jaune." Aoife walked behind him and patted his back.

His breathing started to slow down.

"Oh dust…" Jaune looked at the ground. "I'm sorry."

"I know how bad it could feel to keep your emotions inside. Let it out."

Jaune sighed… "Thanks. I needed that."

"No problem Jaune. You, Jack, and Wolfe are the ones keeping Daniel around. Don't waste this chance for him." Aoife nodded. "Now that's out of the way. I think I'll get some lunch with my team now. I'll see you around Jaune." Aoife turned around and did a backwards wave to Jaune.

"See ya." Jaune stared at the garden.

.

..

…

_I'll show those who doubted me the real Goofball._ Jaune thought to himself as he turned around and he nodded to himself as he turned around and walked to his dorm. He explained to his team of some work he needs to do with JAWS. He told them he would be with JAWS for the next couple of days.

"That's okay Jaune. We're just waiting for something cool to happen." Nora smiled as she leaned to her right to take a bite of Ren's sandwich.

Ren just nodded to Jaune then pulled his hands back so Nora's teeth chomped on air.

"Aw come on Ren." Nora pouted.

"Not until you eat your carrots." Ren retorted.

"But I hate carrots."

"And the carrots hate you." Ren pulled his arms back as Nora tried to take his sandwich by force.

"Can you guys tell Pyrrha, I'll be back tomorrow or two days from now, I need to talk to JAWS about some stuff." Jaune waved to them on his way out.

"Sure thing Jaune." Nora waved as she tore a piece of the sandwich away from Ren.

Jaune shouldered his bag and walked to the airship station back to Wolfe's house. For a sake of trust, Wolfe gave Jaune a spare house key to get in. The guys were still out on their morning runs and exercises. Which reminded Jaune to do some work outs later, but right now, he had one thing on his mind.

He took out a small kit he left in the garage and Jaune closed the door.

2 Hours later…

A man in a suit walked out of the garage. The same blue suit he always wore the job. To make the heister look professional and to have no identifying features. That was the main reason the Payday Gang used suits. With that in mind, to what the people they interact with will remember, are the masks the Payday Gang wears.

The mask this time wasn't the one Jaune used in recent jobs, but a new one. A declaration of oneself and his anger. A Silver mask with a narrow focal point. The eyes were darkened out similar to Wolfe's demon mask. The shape of the eyes were different. Like the eyes had a submissive appearance to it. The mouth of the lower end however had a devious smile to it. The upper lip lifted slightly from the right end and the left end was lower and connected to his bottom lip. So a devious grin formed, underneath several outlines to teeth could be seen. Along the forehead of the right and left sides were two parallel strings. The two were long stretched out crescents, than mirrored each other. The left had some blue under as it glazed along the eye slit. The right had an illusion of red to it as it moved through the eye.

_People want to see a goofball, well… I'll give them a goofball._

Jaune sneered to himself as he strapped the mask on.

_Yeah… That's it, this mask will be called the Goofball._

Jaune looked at the basic plans to oversee the job they're supposed to do for Vlad. Crescent nodded to himself as he smiled devilishly under it. The plans, the tools, and the floor plans.

…_There's a lot of work I need to do…_

3 Days Later, Early Evening, 7 minutes before the start of the Heist

"I see three guards in the lobby." Daniel whispered into his headset. "They're marked now."

"Great." Jaune said as he stood in a vacant alley. He looked to his left and right.

"VRT, the following is for a mature audience only." Jacket smirked at his teammates.

"Welp, I started the clock now boys. I think it's you're time to move." Twitch leaned forward in a bored position in the driver's seat. In a small bag in the passenger seat, Twitch had his mask.

A mask with a helix crossing itself form the corners of the lower cheeks that curled in unison at the center of the lips and up the bridge of the nose, then the lines sprout apart at the eyebrows. The eye slits were darkened out and were shaped with more space for his eyes to see through. Below the nose was the shape of seven stray lines of blue. When one really observes the mask, the lines look like whiskers, more specifically. Mouse whiskers. Twitch smiled at his mask as he zipped the bag up in case of onlookers.

"Alright, I checked all the rooms I could with the tapped security feed." Daniel pressed his index finger to his ear.

"VRrrt, Must move. EERRRRrrt, Lost… time."

"Yeah, I heard you Jacket." Jaune nodded. He looked down at the two duffle bags the team will have to carry inside.

"You know you guys could have a least _hired_ a person to go inside." A feminine voice pointed out over the radio.

"No one asked you Velvet." Daniel responded. Velvet snickered at the team's seriousness.

"We would have, but it meant that we couldn't provide the funds to pay for your contact." Wolfe said as he did some applied a last touch to his little briefcase.

"… Fair enough." Velvet shrugged as she looked out at the street below.

"So Wolfe, will this be enough to hold off the cops?" Jaune asked as he strapped on his body armor under his coat.

"It'll keep them back, if we can keep them working and if there is a response large enough to steamroll us." Wolfe answered honestly.

"At least you have something to help out." Velvet commented as she watched Daniel look back at his laptop.

Two blocks away from the Mark Diego Bank, Velvet had a clear line of sight to the bank several hundred yards away. Her job was to provide Overwatch again. Velvet's team decided to take a break since their last mission took longer than it needed to be. Daniel stared at the hacked security feed so he could help mark the guards before the Payday Gang moved in.

The layout of the place is that it's a two story building on a narrow street. The surrounding buildings are close enough to make several alleyways that could make the place look much smaller, which would leave three different sides the team could escape from. The buildings of the surrounding area were narrowly packed together. The bank has two floors, the ground floor and the roof. The team split up to take each possible side without using the main entrance.

"So Wolfe, how did the tests go with the invention?" Jaune asked over the communication. Velvet noticed a small insect crawl on the side of hand. It was a tiny spider. The legs moved gracefully over her glove.

…

"Define 'test." Wolfe finally responded.

…

"VRT, Oh boy…"

Velvet found that hilarious as she contained her laughter while she moved her glove onto the concrete of the roof. The spider crawled off her glove to walk off into its hidey hole.

…

"Well talk about that later." Jaune replied. Daniel found that funny, as he lost concentration for him to lose one the outlines of the guards in the Bank. He realized it quickly enough to readjust his focus. He spotted the guard again and marked him.

"I don't see any first responders." Velvet added as she looked out to the streets below. Since the sun was down, the reflection of her binoculars didn't reflect much light.

"Okay, I just entered the code for the feedback loop." Daniel said as he entered a ten digit code for the security. "4 minutes start… now."

"Alright people, get your masks on." Jaune said as he walked through the alley. Jaune adjusted his shoulder with a heavy blue duffle bag and applied his gloves. His new mask strapped firmly on his head as he walked through doorway. The camera blinked a red light at him.

Wolfe wrote a virus to enter the security and infect the cameras to go into a feedback loop. If the guard wasn't paying attention for a few minutes, it wouldn't seem like anything suspicious would happen.

"Let's roll." Daniel said as he strapped on his mask.

"VRT, Be advised, the following presentation is not intended for minors." Jacket silently chuckled to himself, he saved that preset recording since he got this recorder. While the recorder played the long message, Jacket holstered his lucky crowbar.

"Moving in." Crescent stated as he entered through the second back door to the place.

"Twenty seconds." Crescent said under his Goofball mask.

"Roger that." Wolfe responded eagerly. He and Jacket stood together on the opposite side of the building with two brief cases each at their backs.

Crescent entered the building without any trouble since the door was opened earlier today by a building member. Saved him the trouble on having to pick the lock. His Knight's SR 10 was ready to go.

The door flew open, he crouched down then he noticed two security guards stand beside each other. He took cover along a wall between him and the guards. The outlines made the job much less intimidating. The layout of the place didn't have much to it since it was arranged to similar banks. A wide open area for the customers, and the long barrier between the bankers. The guards of the place looked to be in above average health. Must be since the rise in the Payday Gang's activities.

Crescent entered the place and he walked to the opening. He noticed two guards as he walked at the corner. They walked past the hallway where Jaune entered. Like that Crescent smacked one of them over the head.

"Ready." Crescent stated. As he waited for the two other doors in the building to burst open. Within several seconds, three of the guards were down. The last one that noticed didn't reach for is side arm in time.

The last guard watched as he was crouched down behind a cubicle. The moment he reached for his radio, a metallic rod pressed against his cheek.

"Don't do anything stupid." Crescent said. The moment the guard lowered his guard a jolt of electricity flowed through him. It was a modified Taser with some dust inside to make the target become tired as well. Like a tranquilizer.

If any of them were some kind of tranquilizer addict, hopefully this'll keep the guards out the way until the Payday Gang finished up at the bank. Crescent walked out to see the hostages all zip tied and placed inside the teller station with the bullet proof glass. Safety is still one of the rules.

"What we got?"

"2 minutes and 29 seconds." Houston responded as he entered the through the entrance Crescent came from.

"Awesome." Crescent looked out to the street. Nothing as of yet outside. This bank was on the verge of closing for the day. Too bad the team needed to make withdrawal before it could close.

"Make this quick people." Velvet pointed out.

Wolfe looked around at the hostages. The workers cuddled in the corners as a woman who sat up had her face down to the carpet. "Where's the manager?" Wolfe leaned down as he let the mask do the rest of the talking.

"…"

"Where is the manager?" Wolfe asked again.

"She's the one you want." A young man in a suit nodded toward a woman in the crowd.

"I'm going to need a key get into the vault." Wolfe said in deepened annoyance.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have the key to do the vault. There was a change of locks. The new key is in transfer with the upper management. I'm just a temporary manager." The woman raised her hands in fear.

"Look, I'm sorry about this." Wolfe said as he opened the top portion of her suit for him to reach in to brush her neck… there was no necklace. Most the hostages stared at him for whatever could happen.

"Thank you for your cooperation." Wolfe nodded to the woman as he re-buttoned her suit's coat.

The woman looked away…

Wolfe turned away and walked out of the teller booth.

"Plan B guys." Wolfe pointed out. Then like that, Crescent dropped his duffle bag and Jacket opened the bag and the two of them took pieces of the thermal drill to place it in front of the vault.

"We got the drill set up." Crescent stated.

"1 minute people." Velvet reminded them.

"I'm on it." Houston said as he used a security key card from one of the knocked out guards. As the whole thing started, an ECM jammer was placed outside of the door so that guard inside wouldn't use his radio.

A guard looked at Houston as he raised his DMR.

"Don't act dumb." He barked.

The guard didn't do anything in retaliation, instead he raised his hands.

"Please, don't shoot." A bald man of dark skin looked to the ground.

"ON your knees." The guard complied with Houston's orders. "Cuff yourself."

Once he was done, Houston entered the security room and Wolfe led the guard to a closet full of the other knocked out guards. The same Taser electrocuted the guy. He dropped down and now the place was now free of guards.

"We got to move people." Crescent walked to the vacant lobby.

So far the guards have been knocked out, security is being eradicated with Houston uploading a virus, and their sniper hasn't informed them of any danger… yet. _Not bad_. Crescent nodded to himself.

"Here we go." Wolfe talked loud enough for Crescent to warrant his attention. At the corner that looks over the lobby had a tripod rise out with a strapped Glock 19 Long Barrel pistol stuck out.

"The second generation of gun turret is here." Wolfe nodded to himself, the briefcase opened up.

"Hmm, not bad."

"Look out people. We got company." Velvet pointed out.

By then the drill started up, the drill was on with several gas and dust tanks to give the drill enough heat to get through the vault. On the left side of the drill was a small monitor attached to the left side. The display lit up with a blue screen with a 5 minutes.

"VRT, This drill, eeerrvt, a divine comedy…" Jacket flicked his thumb. "Which is most horrible."

"Yeah yeah laugh it up." Wolfe sneered as he looked outside.

"The target is an animated machine. It seems that it's a repair model A-XT3."

"So we'll be fine." Houston guessed. He checked on the hostages and all of them were huddled do in the corner. He looked up to see the fake camera watching them. Houston cocked his head, he had to admit, there was a scare tactic they had that actually worked.

The machine glanced at the window where Wolfe looked out, followed by Houston. The machine stopped in its tracks and looked up.

.

.

.

The machine turned around and sprinted full speed to across the street.

"… That model seems to have a small communications antenna and its alerting the fuzz." Wolfe pointed out.

"Lock and load, people." Crescent suggested.

Then like that, in forty five seconds, a dozen automatic droids from the district sprinted the bank. One of which was the same A-XT3. Houston made sure to blast the visor the moment it entered the building.

Wolfe ducked down as a droid's arm flew across the lobby to smack a droid right behind him. Every one of them was the Atlesian Knights. So the transfer to the police wasn't difficult. The Command Hubs that do droid management must be prepping the machines to attack the Bank.

Crescent flicked his sickle blade as he slashed the chest of the machine for it spark at him with its M9 pointed to the ceiling and fired a bullet.

"How much time we got?"

"4 minutes and 24 seconds." Wolfe responded.

"Motherfucker!" Houston shouted since the time it took to take care of the first wave easily took over minute.

"The drill wasn't aligned properly and jammed right away…" Wolfe kneeled down to fix the drill to serve its purpose. The damn thing was stubborn with him but he got it to work again.

"Just adapt. We can do this." Crescent said under his new make, it didn't help with his point.

"Hey guys, a police airship is coming in. Probably air dropping some droids." Velvet updated, she noticed several police vans heading to the bank as well.

"Also, several vans are coming in, better batten down the hatches boys, because this is going to get heavy." Velvet adjusted the sight of her sniper rifle. Velvet had a collection of sniper rifles but for something like this, she brought her SVD Dragunov with a silenced barrel. The fire rate helped her take down multiple targets in few time in between shots.

The team braced themselves as the wave came in… after Wolfe fixed the drill on the second time it broke down again for no reason. From the first repair, it broke down again after twenty seconds.

The team didn't bother complaining about it. Wolfe always does his best when it comes to the technical stuff. Even when they break down.

Outside, a block away from the Bank.

Four human police officers stood at the corners and behind cover as three Atlesian Knight Squads mobilized.

"Hey, what's up with that?" An officer asked his friend as another van came in. It opened up and a dozen machines walked. None of them looked like the regulars.

"Hey, what are those?" One of the police asked.

"Just something special on the behalf of the Bureau of Investigation." The driver pointed smiled.

"It's the Payday Gang."

"We know, this is just our response to those bastards." The driver walked away from the deployment and slapped the side of the van as he reentered the driver's seat.

"What could these things do?"

"No idea." The police rambled to themselves.

Inside the Bank

"We got shields!" Houston shouted and pointed toward a wall of four Shield Wielding Atlesian Knights inched make their approach to the bank. Behind the Shields was a Bulldozer and two Tasers.

"Dust damn!" Wolfe shouted as he slammed a new magazine into his G36.

Then like that, the head for one the shields snapped and toppled over. The shield dropped as well for a Titan dozer to be seen right behind it. The hammer raised toward the sky in excitement. It was more of a scare tactic from the programming.

"We got company!" Crescent shouted as the Titan Dozer sprinted forward to charge into the bank. Crescent ducked down the Titan dozer smashed through the grass. Wolfe followed up by as he unleashed an entire clip. Jacket did the same and it didn't faze the dozer that much.

Houston on the other hand kept the helmet shots up with his DMR. So there wasn't much on their fronts. The people inside the teller were still safe from the gun fire. Jacket made sure of that for the bulletproof shutters to drop down and protect them.

Then two of the dozen Kamikazes flinched at the back of the head. The new wave was exposed for Velvet to take head shots near a hydraulic or the joints. The left leg of it snapped back for it fall forward. Just in time for Crescent to slash across the visor of the Dozer. The remaining shields made it to the top of the steps. A grenade rolled to the feet of them, but it wasn't a lethal one, just an EMP grenade. The thing flashed a blue light for the Shields to go down.

"VRT, Shields… no longer in service." Jacket fist pumped for a bullet to strike the wall behind him. He sprinted out of the way as he noticed several droids entered through the side door. His Piece tore them apart before the machines could adjust their aim.

The Bulldozer was teamed up on by Jacket and Crescent and it blew apart several feet from the building. The chest cavity sparked from all the damage it absorbed. All that remained of the attack force was the Tasers that sprinted into the building.

Crescent looked up and his chest jerked back as he hit a wall. A bullet lodged itself into his body armor.

"Another wave coming in guys." Velvet updated.

"Thanks." Crescent walked from the wall and paced toward the Vault. "What does it look like? Titans? Tasers?"

"Give me a moment."

"Alright." Crescent looked toward the drill to see a Cloaker stood above it ready to smash it with its foot. Crescent acted on reflex. In ten seconds, the helmet of the thing rolled along the floor. The infrared lights faded out.

"I have no idea what those things are but they're coming in, and fast!" Velvet had to lessen the magnification of her scope to keep the next wave in view.

"What does that mean?" Houston looked out.

"No idea. I just checked the drill, we have 1 minute and 30 seconds before the Vault is ours."

"Copy."

"Got it.

"VrrRt, Understood."

Wolfe crouched down placed his back to a wall. From the amount of targets, he already spent half of his ammo, the same goes for Houston. The team didn't pack up for the long haul since they wanted to get in and get out from the bank.

"Deploying turret." Wolfe lowered briefcase, flicked a switch, and a tripod outfitted with a Glock 19 Long Barrel with dual drum magazines to keep continuous fire. The thing flipped open as several droids were shot at.

Houston finished off one of the Tasers with a headshot.

The last special that remained was the second Taser. It charged forward at Jacket and fired its wires at him. Jacket shot at the legs for the thing to drop to its knees.

As that happened a wave of sprinting droids busted through the windows. Each of them armed with different weapons. The things had fade out orange paint to them. The shells looked scrapped, beaten and dented in several places. A droid flicked its helmet at Wolfe. The joints rotted out as neck broke while the hand caught itself. It took a step forward, then like that, two blackened barrels exposed themselves at the kneecaps. These machines had weapons all over their bodies. Seven of them rallied together as they waited for more orders to come in from a nearby van.

**Start the song now**

The Taser that bowed to Jacket had its helmet pulled back to the point it snapped back. The inner wiring exposed and sparked out. Jacket nodded as he plunged his left hand inside for the wires to tickle his fingers. Then he took a fist full of the wires and yanked it for the droids to see. The inners that helped Jacket thrive in these situations. His right hand had his recorder.

"eeeRVt, Who wants chicken nuggets?" Jacket said as he felt charged as a blinked his eyes for a blue light to emanated under his mask.

The machines broke apart to charge at the whole team.

Jacket shoved the dead Taser aside as two droids charged at him. He pulled out his crowbar.

The first droid lunged at him and he slapped it aside mid-flight. The second droid decked him on the chest for him to take a step back. The rooster mask turned to it.

The droid was smashed in with the crowbar. The one that he knocked out of the way flexed its fingers apart for the fingers to become small knives. Jacket liked that hand, it could be useful. Jacket stepped back as the fingers swiped to him, then after that Jacket responded as his opposite hands did a right hook and the droid took it then reverse the legs and joints for it regain its balance. The hand slashed back for it graze Jacket's mask. He was lucky, had it been any deeper, the thing could have got his eyes.

Jacket liked that, it made the next part all the easier. Before the Droid could recover, Jacket sprinted in to plant his crowbar into the lower stomach. The crowbar pierced through for Jacket to pull it directly across and the torso was almost severed. For the final part Jacket stomped on the legs for him to pull the rest of the torso out.

The droid hung limply in his left hand.

Jacket spotted a droid aim its left arm at him where a hand should be. It snapped back as one of Wolfe's turrets knocked it off course.

Jacket used this moment to drop the torso slightly for him to catch the arm before it went completely to the ground. Jacket lifted the arm for him to spin around and he swung the claw hand around to slash the visor. It did next to no damage but when the droid readjusted its sensors Jacket stood in front of it.

He raised his left leg and kicked it back into the wall, and before it could retaliate, Jacket raised his piece from the ground and fired it completely from the legs to the head. The helmet snapped and the droid toppled to the floor. More windows shattered from the new Kamikaze squad.

Wolfe backed Jacket up as the two continued to cleave through the Kamikaze droids.

The vault door was finally breached as Houston and Crescent charged through as the door swung open… Two beautiful piles of lien sparkled.

"DUST FUCKING DAMN IT!" Crescent shouted as there was a bar reinforced steel gate from between the vault and the contents.

"We got another gate to drill through!" Crescent shouted as he placed a second drill on the door.

"How long?" Wolfe shouted as he kept his head down as one droid unleashed an entire SMG clip into a wall.

"It says 120 seconds." Crescent shouted back.

"Fuck."

"ErrErt, Need assistance." Jacket leaned back as two droids charged him with bladed feet.

It slashed at his neck but he defended himself in time his crowbar.

"I got you buddy!" Wolfe peeked out to see the droid shooting at him, too confused to reload. He took it down no problem.

The foot droid did a high kick to cut the cheek of Jacket's mask.

"Fuck off!" Wolfe came in from the left side in a tackle to get one of the droids away Jacket. It was enough time for Jacket reach for his Piece and completely riddle the second droid with bullets.

Wolfe had the visor of the droid come down onto his mask which had him bump into the ground. It did so again and Wolfe felt dizzy. In a final desperate attempt, Wolfe shoved the droid up and as he did, a crowbar pierced through the head of the droid for Jacket to twist it off while Wolfe shoved the frame away.

"Thanks buddy." Wolfe sighed as Jacket offered a hand. He looked around to see that Crescent and Houston destroyed the last of the droids in the wave.

"Before you ask, they're dysfunctional droids that were meant for combat. These things aren't that much in terms of frame but fucking quick and are smart enough to use what they can find as weapons."

"So the opposite of Jacket." Crescent joked.

"Yeah…" Wolfe shrugged as he brushed off bits of droid from his suit.

**The first song should end and start the second song now**

"Look out, another Kamikaze wave coming in!" Velvet replied as more and more cops seemed to show up. "Hurry up people. More droids are coming in, it looks like some Bulldozers are mobilizing."

Houston sprinted to the second drill at the vault. "We got 79 seconds."

"Roger that."

20 more Kamikazes showed up down the street. Houston, Wolfe and Crescent walked to the window and fired in full auto at the droids coming in. At least 5 were knocked out on their approach. A droid lost its leg but it continued to crawl to the bank. Velvet sniped the ones she could.

A droid jumped through a window for it to be smashed across the helmet with a droid arm. Jacket dropped it and shook his head.

One of the droids punched the wall for it to gain leverage. The legs reversed the joints so it attached to the wall. The damn Kamikaze crawled along the ceiling. Several others followed its example. One of them fired a shotgun blast for Houston to fall back into a cubicle.

Crescent noticed that and he sprinted to the droid and jumped up to catch a grip on it. He slashed at the stomach for the thing to limp on the ceiling. Crescent liked his handy work as a Titan dozer pulled him off to land his back and a boot ready to crush him. He rolled out of the way.

"How's Houston!?" Crescent shouted as he got to his feet and a hammer dropped down.

"I'm okay…" (Cough) "They just got my body armor." (Cough) Houston leaned up, and brushed himself off. "It just knocked the wind out of me."

"This'll sting a little!" A Cloaker charged at Crescent to dive kick him. Before it could, Jacket grabbed it out of the sky then flung it at the Titan dozer. It landed in front of Crescent to be smashed in. Jacket and Crescent tagged team the Dozer down.

"eeRvRT, Cloaker, VRT, Dozer… no longer in service." Jacket and Crescent high fived each other as Wolfe walked into the Vault.

"The door is open now."

Houston got his bearings back and looked up as Jacket offered him a hand.

"Alright, Vlad wants us to get the lock box marked at T-27." Wolfe found the one Crescent pointed out.

He opened it and inside he blinked at the contents. Two bags worth of money was placed on the center table.

"Great." Jaune smiled as he grabbed the objective.

"… All of this… for a damn tiara…" Wolfe rolled his eyes as he helped Crescent bag the money.

"I know. But this'll leave us more to work with Vlad. He's connected in Vale." Crescent reminded Wolfe of the objective.

"Yeah. Sorry boss, just caught in the moment."

"It's okay." Crescent finished his bag of lein. "Twitch! We need you get in position!"

"Got it boss. Be there in 30 seconds." Twitch closed his newspaper and put his mask on. This was exciting for him.

"I think that concludes my contract." Velvet replied. During the whole commotion, Velvet took out at least 20 droids from swarming the Payday Gang. "The heat probably know there's a sniper somewhere."

"Roger that Velvet. Good luck." Crescent replied.

"You too." Velvet packed up her gear.

"Alright let's get out of here crew." Crescent said as he walked out of the vault. Houston and Jacket kept the rest of the attack at bay. It also seemed like the team fought off the current wave. The thermal drill was retrofitted to a wall at the edge of the bank. Wolfe pressed a button for the thermal dust and parts to explode and to make a hole into an alleyway that would have been a dead end. However, due to Wolfe's awesome 'no fucks given' carpentry skills, a new hallway with a skylight was made free of charge. Which was a straight shot to the escape van.

"Great work, professional work." Houston said into the comms as the team sprinted down the alley.

"Come on, come!" Twitch looked around.

"Watch out!" Wolfe shouted as he noticed a police airship hover above the street and most likely spotted the Payday Gang leave the bank. The bay doors opened up and ten droids jumped out to surround the van.

The crew didn't stop and just opened fire on the droids that landed on the concrete. One of which was shot in the helmet by Twitch that had a shotgun aimed at Jacket. He nodded to him as the team killed the droids and the airship flew off since Houston aimed at the cockpit to scare the pilot off. The team piled in. Houston sat in the passenger side to the driver.

"Go go go!" Crescent shouted each of them jerked back as the van sped off.

"We did it!" Wolfe smiled as the dark streets appeared limitless.

Twitch laughed. Something rumbled on the roof and stuck out above the driver's window. "What the FUCK!" Twitch shouted as the thing revealed a pistol and the van jerked to the left for the droid to miss complete on its shot at killing the driver. But two bullets got Twitch in the leg.

Houston took Twitch's pistol and shot the visor off the droid then the thing dropped and rolled on the concrete.

"Gah, FUCK this hurts!" Twitch moaned as he took hold of his leg around the kneecap. The van had some control but outside the van two droids latched onto the van and at the same time, the droids punctured the tires for the van to lose control and drift to the right and it planted into the wall.

The team shook their heads. The impact could have been worse. Twitch took the safest way to crash. He judged from the smoke and knew the van was completely totaled.

_This is it… At least it was fun._ Twitch thought to himself. He remembered all the times on other jobs the passengers abandoned him in the past.

"Houston help Twitch." Crescent shook his head. "Jacket, Wolfe help me keep the cops off us!" The door was kicked opened for the Payday Gang to defend themselves of the incoming Kamikazes.

"We hold here until Twitch is bandaged up!" Crescent loaded his third to last clip.

"Let's fuck 'em up!" Wolfe checked his G36, it was still good for a clip and a half.

Jacket walked beside them as his mask reflected the new scratch marks. He didn't look fazed by the force coming in.

Twitch was still in the van as Houston bandaged him up. He tore off the sleeves of his suit to be used as bandages.

Twitch looked up to see Jacket fire at a group of four Kamikazes and Crescent cut the arm off a droid. A crowbar flew through the air to smack a droid to the ground. The fighting continued for thirty seconds and that was enough for Houston to bandage Twitch and did it tight enough so his blood wouldn't leak out to the ground. It was so tight, it felt like no blood could flow. Twitch looked up as Houston offered a shoulder.

"Crescent, we're good to go!" Houston shouted.

"Roger. Wolfe! Plan C!" Wolfe nodded as he drew a small grenade he saved during the whole heist and chucked it into the van.

"We have ten seconds." Wolfe shouted. He noticed something at a rooftop that overlooked the street.

"SNIPER!" Wolfe pointed out. Jacket took Twitch and Houston raised his DMR.

Three bullets later… "Sniper eliminated!" Houston shouted as they were a safe distance from the van.

It erupted in a baptizing flame and consumed the possible evidence inside. The thermal dust concoction was a special blend to act as acid too so most surfaces inside would melt. Totally worth it from the last trip to Gage.

"What do we do now?" Wolfe asked as they had several precious seconds.

Crescent looked around and noticed their salvation.

"There!" Crescent pointed toward a staircase downward. "We'll lose them in the subway." The team didn't waste any time at all as the sirens in the distance started to get louder.

"Why are you guys-?" Twitch looked at Crescent.

"You're a member of the Payday Gang stick together, and that includes you Twitch." The staircase wasn't that bad nor was the place crowded. The sound of gun fire must have scared everyone off.

Houston walked in front of the team as the team walked the long narrow halls. Their footsteps echoed all throughout. Crescent backed him up as they kept their eyes out for potential dangers. Jacket stopped in his tracks. He looked back as a Kamikaze appeared down the hall. He crouched down and with the last three turrets, the team placed them to cover their escape.

"Ideas Wolfe?" Crescent asked.

"In all subways, there has to be maintenance tunnels that spread out all over the city. We just got a lot of walking to do." Wolfe shrugged.

The bullets down the tunnel reminded them of what little time they have. They continued to walk as they made it to a place to stop. Houston crouched down.

"Let me change his bandages and I'll catch up." Houston suggested.

"Alright. Wolfe, could you stay here while Jacket and I scout ahead?" Crescent asked.

"No problem."

Crescent looked down at the concrete as he walked away. The plan today went south had they kept their heads down and now Twitch is hurt. So much for the plan coming together. Crescent felt a pat on the back, he looked up to see Jacket nodding to him.

"Thanks buddy." The two of them noticed a wide gap to them as they got closer. It was a wide open piece of space for people to walk through. Jacket tilted his head and drew his weapon.

A bullet came from above. It could have easily caught Crescent or Jacket.

Then their new attackers appeared.

"You missed." A feminine voice said in an insulting way. Like truth mixed with sarcasm.

"And you gave us away... I thought the purpose of a surprise attack was to catch them off guard." Another one pointed out.

"But that wouldn't be fair." A young whiny voice shot back.

...

"No no no. We do not have time for this." Crescent thought out loud.

"Uh girls. We should probably stop bickering and just catch them." The third voice added.

Just then, the rest of the Payday Gang made their turn at the corner.

"Stop right there Evil doers, for we are here to stop you." The young voice said in a bubbly fashion. A Red Scythe formed in her hands as the team looked out to see their attackers. The Payday Gang saw a single woman walk past her friends. She raised her hands to the ceiling and brought them together for large golden gauntlets to flash fire.

The woman was blonde and she cracked her neck. "You ready for round 2?"

**Well the time has finally come. JAWS vs RWBY. Again, sorry for the late posting. My classes are starting to really pile on the homework. Well thank you so much for reading and have an excellent day.**

**Commandosquierrel: **Thank you for voting.

**Mr. Green37: **It kinda is.

**Supernoob257:** Thank you for your kind words. Felicia turned out better than I thought she would. A nice sassy character. Wow, didn't know that. Freaky huh? I hope you like the chapter.

**Harutora75:** Sorry about the Dozer rush. Thank you for reading.

**10****th****Alias:** Wow, thank you. I'm a guy and thank you for enjoying the story.

**BusterBlue12:** I like those kind of stories too. Thank you for voting. Have a great day.

**Eugenio4079:** Yeah, Jaune has been learning a lot since the Payday. Well I would have liked that too if JAWS ran into RWBY but I my slight changes to the story kept me from doing that. Well this chapter didn't have a training montage but I think it turned our okay.

**Helpful Reader: ** I thought chapter was pretty fun. Definitely odd and still funny. Thank you for liking the story. Have a great day.

**BlackLight181:** Yeah it sucks when that happened, but she explained to me the problem of what happened and I couldn't be mad at her too much. Thank you for your support. Have an excellent day.


	28. Chapter 28, Snake Eyes

**I'll talk as little as possible. We all know why we're here. The songs for this chapter will be "**Normal Battle**" From the Shin Megami Tensei Soundtrack and "**Snake Eyes**" by Feint.**

**Link for first song: ** watch?v=6Y2MI7uMr6k

**Link for second song: ** watch?v=vIAQuDkhXpQ

The Payday Gang was now in the sights of team Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. Yang stepped forward and tilted her head as her lilac eyes stared at them. The Payday Gang was at a complete stop.

"Voice modulators, on." Crescent ordered in a low whisper. Then like that, ever member reached for the lower section of their masks and pressed a button.

"We are the Payday Gang, let us pass." Crescent ordered.

"That's not going to happen." Yang spoke for the team before Ruby would answer them.

_Odd, I think I could use this._ Crescent cocked his head.

A figure dropped from above and was the Faunus member of the team. She looked back and walked to her team slowly. The Blake that stood with her team was just and illusion. One Crescent cursed himself for falling for. Blake, looked over her shoulder and noticed the wounded member of the Payday Gang and she even watched them hold off a wave of police droids. That didn't left Crescent with some major worry. That she could see their fighting styles and adapt herself.

"Oh, um… It looks like one of you is injured, if you calmly turn yourselves in, we'll do our best to offer safe passage for your friend to get medical treatment." Ruby waved her hand so the Payday Gang could see her since she stood behind her teammates. Ruby walked past her teammates to look at the Payday Gang.

…

"Screw that noise guys." Twitch grunted. "From Houston's amazing work, I think he managed to stop the bleeding. I'm just a little tired, can we get out of here soon. Please?" Twitch was lead to the wall the furthest from the fight and Wolfe gently lowered him down. "The police want to lock down the bank and then start their search… I don't know about them Kamikazes though."

"Sorry, but we're going to pass on that deal." Crescent spoke up.

"We take it you're the leader?" Weiss asked as she flicked her rapier in annoyance.

"No, we're a team and we decide as one." Wolfe spoke up and his G-36 checked the chamber.

"Hey at least we have that in common." Ruby spoke up for Weiss and Yang to shoot her mean glares.

As that happened, Wolfe adjusted the sling on his shoulder and at his lower back. He could finally use a weapon that wouldn't be much against the droids. It was a small baton and doubled in size as the lower half ejected out. Wolfe couldn't wait to test this weapon out.

"Are you doing this to threaten the people of Vale?" Weiss asked.

All the Payday Gang did was laugh at the statement. Houston stepped forth. "Not a chance. That doesn't concern us how people react." He slapped a new magazine into his DMR. "We only care about who stands in our way."

Blake and Yang narrowed their expressions.

"A little over the top there." Wolfe stated the obvious in a low tone only the mask mics could hear.

"Well, we agreed to be the so called 'bad guys' in this." Houston whispered back.

"Wolfe give me options." Crescent said into the team mic.

"We fight, lose and end up on the morning news, or we fight them off enough for us to escape. I vote for the second option." Wolfe patted his back pocket. "I got four thermal dust charges."

There wasn't much the Payday Gang could do at the moment. Crescent memorized what the team prepared for and that didn't include electro dust rounds. That would come in handy at the moment. Sure, Jacket could charge up all of their weapons but that would be a dead giveaway of his semblance. It's okay during the heists since the droids that would see him do that were usually destroyed.

"They're not doing anything." Ruby looked to Weiss.

"We know Ruby." Weiss groaned.

"Guys, don't make a move until they do." Crescent ordered. By then, Houston already outlined RWBY. However, since the heist went badly he couldn't get on the clear level to do predictions.

Jacket made a single step to his right, Blake drew Gambol Stroud then aimed it at him.

"Not one more step." Blake didn't even hesitate or blink when her weapon was drawn.

"Shouldn't we talk about this?" Ruby looked to her left and right.

Crescent looked toward Twitch and noticed that he grunted under his mask.

"Are you-" Crescent was cut off as Blake fired a bullet between him and Twitch.

"I said DON'T MOVE!"

"We can't stay like this. Wolfe, figure a way out as the rest of us hold them off. Remember, Weiss is the one who offers the most support to the team." Crescent pointed out. From all the times Jaune practiced with them on the first semester, Weiss always supplied the team with some kind of Dust attack. Ruby even made battle formations.

**Start the first track.**

Here it was, the Payday Gang had to make its move. RWBY showed their claws. It's their turn now.

"On _Go._" Crescent pointed out. Wolfe tightened his grip on his baton.

"1…" Houston flicked the safety off on his DMR.

"2…" Jacket, pocketed his recorder.

"3…" Crescent flicked his SR for it to adjust into the sickle blade.

"You!" Yang found her target, she broke away from her team and went straight for Crescent.

"Go!" The Payday Gang broke apart as Yang closed he distance and brought her gauntlet down to the concrete. Crescent jumped back and slashed his sickle blade horizontally for Yang to side step the attack.

Blake dashed appeared before the team with a blank stare and had her Gambol Shroud aim directly at the feet of Houston for him to instinctively raise his feet. That play went straight into her favor, Gambol Shroud adjusted to the bladed variant and went for his lower legs. Jacket noticed this and had his Piece fire several bullets to get her to back off. The play didn't work since Blake faded from view and she stood beside Jacket and punched him on his rib cage then for her to reverse kick him in his chest. He tripped over and landed flat on his back.

Houston noticed this and flicked his weapon for the DMR to go into rifle mode. Once he peered through the scope. A series of white glyphs lined up for the far end of the place toward where RWBY stood. Houston looked up to see the white princess glide along the glyphs. He wanted to fire at her, but then several bullets whizzed past him. The bullets struck the walls for it to burst out in ice. A glyph hovered from Ruby's position as she fired at the Payday Gang. Houston wanted to take a step back but a burst of ice erupted inches from his left foot. Trapping him.

The outlines of RWBY faded as the rest of the Payday Gang knew what it meant. Houston was in trouble. Jacket still had Blake to worry about as he rolled to his left for her to enter a bitter mind game.

Yang appeared before the smoking shot as she tried to smash Crescent. She did several straight punches and ignited the dust within Ember Celica as several concussion shots. From sprinting directly to his left side, Crescent noticed several balls of fire clash with the ground in front and behind him. Yang wanted him to be boxed in. On the fourth shot, Crescent slowed his speed and looked directly at the next ball aim directly at him. Crescent's mask started to get in a clear view from the light. With rather decent timing, Crescent lowered his back and jumped to his left as the shot came in. From the look of the areas destroyed. Crescent noticed that the explosive shots Yang fired were of an extremely low yield. However, being caught in a blast or two could knock the wind out of him for her pounce on him.

With sickle blade not being the weapon of choice for the fight. It adjusted itself to the SR variant and Crescent aimed downrange.

"Bumblebee!" The Crimson leader shouted out as she a line of rose pedals appeared before Yang. The Scythe drawn and Crescent could finally catch his breath. Jacket did the same as his shoulders heaved up and down several times as his chest ached from Blake's punches.

Weiss clashed swords with Houston. She leaned in as he did the same as well.

"A Fencer eh?" Houston made his play.

"One of the best." Weiss smirked at him.

"Let's put that to the test." Houston focused entirely on Weiss. The lines adjusted for him to know that she'll tried to parry then use a glyph to trip him. So Houston flicked his sword and stepped back with the bullets of his DMR for Weiss to summon an ice glyph as a shield. The bullets wedged through the ice but didn't pierce through. Houston sprinted through as the ice shattered from his weight. Weiss couldn't react fast enough as Houston punched her on the shoulder. She flinched in annoyance then Myrtenaster pulled back to her cheek for a pierce attack. Houston predicted this as well but heard a revolving sound of the dust revolver within the weapon. He fired several rounds to get her to back off. Houston flicked his blade and nodded to himself.

Wolfe stood beside Jacket as the Bumblebee attack gained traction as Gambol Shroud had Yang at other end as be swung around to launch herself directly toward Crescent. Wolfe noticed the attack and lightly moved his fingers so Yang's flight path missed by several feet as she smashed the wall behind Crescent.

"Thanks man." Crescent said as an annoyed Yang stepped into the open.

"What's wrong? Where's all that pride now?" Yang smiled.

**Start the second song now ;-)**

Twenty feet away, Jacket drew his crowbar and rolled his left shoulder. It ached alright, but he felt worse. He could endure a blow form an Ursa. He mentally rolled his eyes and focused on the task at hand. Houston was busy with Weiss. Ruby, Blake and Yang closed in on Crescent and Wolfe. He'll get some attention for Weiss to lighten up for the rest of the Payday Gang.

Houston flinched as a glyph formed behind him as then Myrtenaster had a glyph of fire.

"Hey guys?" Wolfe called out.

"Yeah?" The team spoke in unison.

"How about we all trade?" Wolfe shrugged. As he said that, Blake and Ruby reloaded their weapons.

"VRT, Do it!" Jacket sprinted forward unleashing his Piece for Blake to fade out again. Jacket didn't pay her any attention as the team split apart. Crescent realigned his weapon and fire several bullets toward Weiss. She summoned another ice glyph barrier. Houston walked away and slashed his sword forward to meet the metal of the Gambol Shroud. Blake smirked at Houston then pulled the trigger to have the blades separate. Ruby noticed Weiss was alone and she reversed her scythe to propel herself forward. Wolfe did his best as it only struck several rose pedals as Jacket patted his back. The two stood side by side as Ruby and Weiss stared back.

Crescent had Houston to show the outline of the incoming Yang. During the scramble to the side, eventually Blake jumped kicked and had Houston stumble backward for Crescent to support him. Blake and Yang looked to each then back toward the Payday Gang.

"I got a plan. It involves moving them to the opposite side the area. There's a door with a red sign over it. We need to position them on this side of the room." Wolfe spoke as fast and clearly as he could.

"We got a plan now people. Let's do this!" Crescent said calmly into the mask. The one main advantage the Payday Gang had clearly over RWBY was the communication. Blake and Yang murmured to each other.

"Let's get started." Houston provided outlines.

Houston and Wolfe sprinted toward side by side.

"Ice Flower!" Ruby shouted as a blue glyph appeared before the two.

"Oh yeah! Well I got tricks too!" Wolfe shouted as he drew an experimental clip from his lower back. The G36 fired several times as the jogged forward. Granted the attack was mostly useless but Houston did the same to force Weiss to use another ice barrier instead.

Crescent did the same as he jogged forward with his SR and Jacket had his Piece in one hand and his Crowbar in the other. Houston reached for his back and tossed a flash grenade as Blake and Yang shielded their eyes fast enough. Houston slashed at the vacant air again. The outline dissipated again. However he noticed that Blake jumped above him from just observing her back at Beacon. Blake's shadow ability throws his outlining off and so he'll have to think critically about her. Crescent did several slashes at Yang. Ember Celica had the sickle blade just graze off it. She frowned and moved her arms out as Houston moved in and swept her legs with his left leg. Yang was a huntress that was well adept at her fighting ability as she regained her balance rather quickly.

Crescent took advantage of that time to get on the opposite side of Yang. Blake appeared before Jacket and the two crossed sword and crowbar. From his abilities, Jacket could keep his crowbar at a decent speed to help with his work and especially in fights.

Yang frowned as Crescent and Jacket played off each other so when before they could be taken out. One would come to the other's rescue. Crescent knew that there is no way the team and win against Yang. To fight her on her terms is a mistake. Yang can endure the punishment and dish it right back.

_Darn kinetic energy_. Crescent cursed to himself as Blake didn't look fazed at all by what the Payday Gang did to fight back. Yang relished the fight from that new smile across her face.

There wasn't much Crescent and Jacket could do against them. Blake fired several bullets at them. Jacket hated that he tightened his grip on his crowbar.

Meanwhile, Weiss and Ruby gathered themselves as Houston kept up the fire and Wolfe circled around at full sprint.

"Just let us by." Wolfe called out in a garbled tone as his G36 fired several bullets into the ice barrier. The holes however were just regular holes. Something oozed out. A green like substance.

"We can't do that." Ruby's Crescent Rose flipped around and she fired several rounds to stop Wolfe. He side stepped the first shot since he spotted her movements in and she completely overshot him on the second. Houston appeared on the other side. Weiss flicked her revolver of the dust and she stabbed the ground as a wall of fire burst out. In that split second of light, a wave of rose pedals went toward Wolfe. He blinked then when he opened his eyes, he was one the ground while Ruby smiled at him.

"Can I see your face, pwease?" Ruby had her scythe at an angle to possibly cut one of the straps to his mask. A strap was cut as Houston felt that his mask wasn't on tight as it should be.

"Need a hand here!" Houston called out. Wolfe fired several rounds to strike the center of Crescent Rose and the bullets just flicked off her weapon.

"She's my pride and joy." Ruby giggled as she pet her weapon. Houston reversed his legs to see if he could scissor her ankles but she moved out of the way before that could happen. Weiss returned for her ball of fire for the two move together on the counter attack. Wolfe shook his head as he parried several of Weiss' slashes and a glyph summoned beneath him. Houston saw this and aimed his rifle at Weiss for the scope of his weapon to shatter into pieces. Ruby took sniped his scope away. Still though, Houston fired two bullets before Ruby did a horizontal slash to him.

Wolfe flicked his wrist and some faint colors of dust seeped out. Weiss noticed it and she recognized the color. Something purple. The dust activated as soon as Wolfe waved his baton quickly. A puff of smoke happened as there was no explosion. Instead, Weiss' eyes were irritated by the compulsive need to itch them.

"Itching powder!?" Weiss rubbed her eyes with her wrists.

"Close. It's my own blend." Wolfe admitted as Weiss frantically moved her sword about. Had Wolfe took a step forward, he could have had a cut on his arm. Then he raised his G36, Weiss' left shoulder flinched from a bullet and the same with her hands. Weiss grunted in pain and she fell backwards.

"Weiss!" Ruby shouted. She kicked Houston back then launched herself toward her partner as Weiss laid on the ground. Weiss coughed several times and she couldn't open her eyes to Ruby.

"Ruby?" She called out.

"Yeah Weiss!?"

"What the heck is this stuff made of!?" Weiss moved her hands in view as a green like gunk was on her hands. Ruby cringed at the sight of it. It look like the boogers from your nose and there was piles of it all over Weiss' hands and her legs. Strange too, since Weiss couldn't get much movement and the stuff looked to be a smooth substance.

**The song should end here**

"Ice Queen is down. Let's move." Wolfe whispered as his new gunk dust blend to incapacitate people worked like a charm. Yang crushed the ground before as she noticed Ruby at the ground helping Weiss. She stared at Crescent with fire in her eyes.

"What did you do?" Yang spoke on the verge of shouting.

Crescent stared back at her.

"If she's hurt in any way. You'll be sorry." Yang's eyes went from gold to her Lilac eyes flashed in several shades of red. Blake placed her hand on Yang's shoulder.

"Calm down Yang."

Yang shoved her shoulder forward so Blake couldn't keep her hand on. Yang shot her stare back at the Payday Gang as they regrouped and the same with RWBY.

"No Blake."

"I should have brought some popcorn." Twitch joked to himself. Twitch was so concentrated on the fights before him. He didn't notice the one malfunctioning Kamikaze on the ceiling. It crawled like a spider downward. It tilted its head at him. It stood several feet above him with an arm blade at the ready. The team was in position and they were almost ready initiate the next part of their plan.

"Wolfe get ready to get Twitch. Jacket, Houston, get ready to lay some suppressing fire and I'll-"

"What the hell!?" Twitch shouted. Above him, the Kamikaze had the arm blade ready sever his head.

"I got it!" Wolfe shouted as he broke apart from the group with Crescent. Yang noticed it and acted on her own as well. However, Yang wanted to get back at the Payday Gang. She didn't notice the danger the wounded one was in and ignored the cries of Blake. Crescent ran in front of Wolfe as the two unleashed the last of their ammunition on that one final Kamikaze. The head snapped out of place and missed Twitch's head by centimeters. However, Yang only had eyes on Crescent. Wolfe knew what Crescent doesn't have enough time to react. So he subtly moved his arms forward to shove Crescent forward as Wolfe couldn't slow himself down as well. In the split seconds of how they aimed a pissed off Yang had her Ember Celica aim downward. As soon as Crescent was out the range of Yang, Wolfe entered it. Crescent ran into the wall and turned around in time. Yang's gauntlet came down and hit Wolfe to the ground… hard.

Wolfe didn't even let out a whimper.

Yang blinked her eyes as she notice a droid drop from above.

With widening eyes, "AAAAHHHH!" Crescent screamed at Yang as he charged forward who was dumbstruck as she didn't see how one of them was in mortal danger.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!" Crescent shoved Yang and she completely lost her balance. As that she fell backward, Crescent caught her and she stared into his mask.

Crescent looked down to Wolfe then back to Yang. Ruby, Blake and Weiss all tried to make a move forward but Jacket and Houston didn't let up.

"You BITCH!" Then like that Crescent headbutted Yang at the bridge of her nose. It didn't cause any real pain to her but it cemented the Goofball mask into her memory. Crescent let go of Yang as if he was disgusted to even touch her. Ruby shouted with the last of the bullets the Payday Gang could muster. Gambol Shroud aimed toward as she fired several bullets toward Crescent and he jerked back on two of the bullets but his armor protected him.

Houston sprinted to Wolfe to see if he was okay as Jacket and Crescent fired at RWBY. During the confusion, Weiss had Ruby activate Myrtenaster's ice dust for her break out of the gunk. So when the Payday Gang started to unload at them. Weiss had selective ice barriers in place and several glyphs moved Yang to safety as she stared at the ceiling and comprehended her actions.

"He's alive!" Houston shouted.

"Dust charges, now!" Crescent ordered. Once that happened. Houston reached for Wolfe's lower back and of the thermal dust charges. In hand, Houston and Crescent tossed the charges toward the ceiling.

"What about the money?" Houston asked in a shout.

"Forget about them." Crescent shot back.

"Here's your dust damn rematch!" Crescent shouted as he aimed his SR upward as Houston and Jacket continued do give RWBY no quarter. Houston shouldered Wolfe, and Jacket walked to Twitch and offered him a hand.

"You might want another barrier." Crescent sneered as the pressed the detonator above. The concrete broke apart and seeing the danger of it. Myrtenaster pointed downward again for an ice barrier to form around RWBY as the ceiling collapsed above them. Crescent mentally hissed at them as he turned around. Wolfe, Twitch, Jacket, and Houston were already into the service hall when Crescent entered.

The rumbling outside didn't seem to well for Jacket. Once the explosions started to shake the ground then with the rubble collapsing. Something about it didn't seem right to him. The doorway opened up for Jacket to look out as a wave of smoke and regular dust puff in from the opening. One step forward from the dust, a man entered. However, the figure wasn't Crescent at all. Instead, it was a middle aged man with brunette hair, thick framed glasses, and a chin encompassing beard to him. Jacket blinked his eyes as the image of the man with the beard was no longer there and Crescent was in his place. Jacket shook his head and focused on the task at hand.

"How is he?" Crescent asked before anything else.

"I'm fine." Wolfe lifted his mask up. "The fall broke my mic is all."

"And he's got a dislocated shoulder." Houston brought Wolfe's arm up.

"Waitwaitwaitwait!" Houston pushed the joint back into place. "ARGH!" Wolfe looked down and panted several times.

"I thought you were hurt. Badly even." Crescent leaned forward.

"Well, right before the impact. I was able to use my semblance to make a focal point on Yang's weapon. It provided enough resistance to lessen the impact." Wolfe wiped the sweat from his brow. "If I didn't, some broken bones would be the most our worries."

Wolfe looked up to see a very relieved Jaune.

"Thank dust you didn't get hurt any worse than I thought." Jaune said as he lifted his mask up. Wolfe told the team it was time to move. The charges they threw would cause the city to start their search from there. So the Payday Gang would have to move again.

.

Twenty minutes in, Jaune finally felt that he calmed down from earlier.

.

Sixty minutes in, Twitch reminded them of how grateful he was to be rescued. The team accepted the gesture and didn't talk too much on it.

.

Ninety minutes in, Jaune finally felt he was himself again. _Did I really need to have to do something like to Yang…_ Jaune looked up as Twitch still needed support with the members at his shoulders. _We have to get better._ Jaune nodded to himself.

"Hey guys. I know this was a rather crappy thing to ask. But do any of you still have the tiara?"

"Eeerrvvrt, Right here." Jacket reached for his lower back. In the light, the object the team risked their lives for was still in one piece. Jaune had no idea how Jacket did it, but he succeeded from which some would consider this heist a failure.

The team traveled for two hours in the zig zagging of the tunnel system. Exhausted and tired of the dim lights of what made the tunnels so depressing. The Payday Gang stood at below a manhole. According to Wolfe, the team should be in a vacant lot 6 miles away from the subway terminal the team fought RWBY in.

The manhole popped out as Jacket peered his head out first. Then like that, Jacket noticed the team was in a vacant lot. Sure there were buildings all around them but none of them had windows that directly overlooked the manhole. Jacket climbed out first and offered a hand for the remaining members.

The team didn't need to discuss on how they barely survived their encounter with RWBY. Blake couldn't be pinned down by Daniel's semblance, Jacket couldn't use his electric abilities without the risk of identification, Wolfe took a blow for Jaune, and all Jaune could do at the moment was avoid a majority of Yang's attacks. Granted it was a long way from the beginning of the semester since the food fight. Jaune recalled being knocked out the fight by just two turkeys that were ironically thrown by Yang.

Each of them didn't feel like they were at their peak condition even with their recent 'success.' They lost the spare money they could have used for the next job as that one piece of bonus information that made them feel even worse.

"So what do we do now?" Wolfe asked before the team could do anything at the moment. Each of them dropped the ground and placed their backs against the wall. The little area the team was in was a vacant and unkempt patch of grass. The walls of the buildings just looked away from the lot. Several walkways pointed off in several directions away from the abandoned lot. It was no larger than a living room of an apartment.

"We're alive. Let's just focus on that okay?" Jaune looked toward the sky. During the heist, Wolfe had a spare small duffle back at his lower left leg. So the Payday Gang had all of their masks and weapons shift into smaller variants for Jacket to carry.

"How much did we lose?" Daniel asked.

"One hundred and fifty thousand lien." Jaune replied as he rubbed his forehead. That had the team lower their heads a little. Sure they survived but they lost the funds needed to help sustain themselves.

"I don't feel like arguing." Wolfe replied.

.

.

.

"Veerrt, Call amigo." Jacket pointed out.

"Who?" Daniel looked up.

"VRT, Amigo." Jacket put his hands on his forehead and point his index fingers in different directions. The look of him was supposed to emulate a person they all knew.

"What does a bull have to do with this?" Wolfe rolled his eyes. Twitch did the same as well.

"Eeerrveet, Amigo." Jacket started to shake his hands on his forehead.

"Wait a second." Daniel looked away from Jacket.

"Are you referring to…?" Wolfe led his words off as the team had the same idea.

Forty minutes later.

The final member of the Payday Gang entered the back seat of a rather new looking mini-van.

"Buckle up everybody." The driver said with a smile.

"Thank you for helping us Mr. Cloud." Daniel leaned forward from his seat. Earlier, Jacket mentioned the one person that could help the team at the moment. That was Mr. Cloud from the Four Stores district. Apparently, Mr. Cloud had a paid off van he always kept in a garage at his house. Daniel walked out in the open to use a payphone to call Mr. Cloud to tell him were the team was located.

Before the team could move out, Twitch sat at the passenger's seat. He told Mr. Cloud a very specific street for them to go to first. It was an extra ten minutes. Once they arrived, Twitch explained that at the corner of Saint Street and Prime Road. Was the apartment of a back alley doctor, he would usually give Twitch a good rate.

"I guess, I'll see you guys around later." Twitch shrugged as the dimly light street made it easier to hide his injury. He closed the door and walked away from the van.

"Shouldn't you go with him?" Daniel asked by turning his head to Wolfe.

"Why?"

"Your shoulder." Jaune spoke up.

"It's fine."

"Eert, Are thou sure?"

"I'm fine." Wolfe moved his left arm and it didn't hurt particularly but still felt a bit sore. "It didn't turn out worse than it needed to be."

The team stared at each other. Mr. Cloud felt an uneasy tension between them. Like something needed to have been spoken but no one was willing to say it. From his marriage, it's something he was all too familiar with. Wolfe turned away and looked forward on the road.

"If you say so Wolfe." Daniel shrugged.

"Can you take us to Tony and Richard junction please?" Jaune leaned forward to hopefully allow himself to be heard.

"Alright." The team each of them were obviously tired and their next location could possibly turn into another firefight. Daniel pasted out the masks. Jacket checked his Piece which only had half a magazine left. Crescent's SR had one fresh magazine. Wolfe didn't have any ammo left but his gunk rounds. Houston used the last of his ammo on the ice barriers Weiss always summoned. So there were four bullets in the clip and one in the chamber.

"Are you doing another job? Because I'm not a getaway driver." Mr. Cloud had an understandable scared expression about him.

"No we're still on the job. We'll be right back." Crescent reassured him.

"Okay." Mr. Cloud frantically looked about.

The Payday Gang walked away with their heads held high.

"We're so screwed." Daniel said into the comms.

"Let's get this part of the job over with." Crescent needlessly checked the chamber of his weapon.

"Vvvrt, Backup?" Jacket turned to the team.

"No, the contract with Velvet would have taken effect if we could have handled the bank without the cops showing up." Wolfe reminded him. Sure his comms was knocked out, but he still could talk in close range with his teammates.

"Just keep cool guys." Crescent pointed out as the team walked into an open parking lot. There, five men in casual clothing stood there. Most of them had their hands in their pockets or inside their coats. The security provided was pretty anxious.

"Is Vlad here?" Crescent called out.

One the guards stepped aside and man in a black jacket and brown carpenter pants walked out into the open. The man called Vlad spread his arms apart.

"Not bad work my friends." Vlad smiled with a slight laugh at the end. Something about it made Houston cringe.

"From what the news waves have told the public about. You made quite a splash." Vlad walked forward as one of the guards stood behind him with a chin raised high. Jacket found the gesture as a call for him to pick a fight with the guy.

"We completed your task." Crescent stepped aside for Jacket to step forward to offer the tiara.

"Thank you for doing this." Vlad nodded as he took the tiara in hand. "An old enemy of mine is getting married. This would have been a gift to his wife." Vlad dropped the tiara to the ground. He effortlessly raised his left shoe and crushed it. The cracking of the thin shape and several gemstones popped out of place. It rolled along the floor and Vlad twisted his foot to grind the tiara deeper into the ground.

"Ah! That was so therapeutic." Vlad smiled. He waved his arms then one other bodyguard walked out into the open with on bag in hand. He lightly tossed it for Wolfe to catch.

"40,000. Like what we agreed on." Vlad nodded to the Payday Gang.

"Just so you know. I could have more work for you in the future." Vlad cocked his head.

"Pleasure." Crescent said in the low tone. Crescent turned around as the rest of the Payday Gang followed him.

"Can we trust him?" Houston whispered into the comms.

"We'll have to." Crescent tilted his head. The gesture was rather short but it was enough that Crescent shared the same concern. The team walked away from the meeting point. Wolfe shouldered the bag of money.

"Let's just go home." Wolfe sighed.

The team entered Mr. Cloud's car and the red lights of the car flashed on. In the background, in the distance the faint hum of the cars of the street echoed. The mini-van pulled out and reversed for to travel out. Once the car sat still for a moment. A booming sound of a rock song came on for the car. Several hands went up as the car started to shake with the people inside. The red lights of the van dimmed down as the car traveled down the street. The yellow adjusted itself to signal for a right turn. The van turned off when there weren't any other cars on the street. They're alive and can be happy to say so.

**Thank you for reading. And so ends the Encounter Arc. It seems weird. Normally in the past the arcs are usually longer. I would make them that way but then the chapters would have a tone of filler in between them. I hope you liked the fight. I went through 5 drafts and this was the one I'm satisfied with. I appreciate all of you who like this story. Have a wonderful day.**

**Mr. Green37:** Yep. I hope you enjoyed this fight.

**MajorDarkBlade:** Yeah, it was a bit of a challenge. Thank you for reading.

**Iandude:** That sounds like the kind of wars to describe a heavy hitting movie trailer. (Chuckle) I hope you liked this chapter.

**WolfShadow:** I love both franchises as well and it feels good to blend the two of them together. While at the same time, I didn't want to teleport characters to different universes and go off from there. Rather, I like how I made this Payday Gang thing, stem off from Jaune's one time idea in the beginning. Thank you for your support on my story. Have a great day.

**Ghost-407:** I hope the fight turned out good. Well that is what Death Wish is. To face the impossible and for them to do their best while trying not to die… I'm probably the cruelest person to the Payday Gang in this story. ;-) Thank you for reading.

**Gamerandartist35:** Jaune has indeed improved some in combat but that is what it is. Improvement. Jaune is still learning to be his own competent fighter. Thank you for expressing your concerns.

**Guest:** You are awesome too.

**Petty Officer 'Waffles:** The fight with RWBY was an inevitable one but still, it was exciting to build it up and work on it from there. I think the team did rather well in the fight. They survived and that's what matters at the moment. I have something special in mind for Captain Winters. Have a great day.

**Shadowlord3468:** Well that's nice to know. I just like to overthink about the character interaction in my stories. Thank you for reading and have an excellent day.


	29. Chapter 29, The Other Side

Two days before the Fight between RWBY and the Payday Gang.

The day was a long one. Just on the second day while the team was out on the field with Dr. Oobleck, nothing but Grimm was their targets. It wasn't difficult, just very very long and boring. Just imagine walking around everywhere, worried about the infrastructure around you and the Grimm themselves.

Mount Glenn was still the concrete and metal carcass of the Valean Government would try to sooner forget than learn from. Not even the newspapers spoke of the expansion anymore. This was something a member of RWBY wasn't too fond of. She always researched what she needed for her ambitions. That includes to learn from other people or groups' failures. However, right now, she was just in a middle of a vacant and cracked street, bored out of her mind.

Gambol Shroud flipped through the air as Blake tossed it into the sky several times to keep herself preoccupied. It's been two days since team RWBY and Dr. Oobleck flew out to Mount Glenn via airship. Dozens of kilometers later, the team found next to nothing.

Blake looked up and noticed that several infant Nevermores flew in a triangle formation with a medium sized on in the lead. The Grimm may be hostile toward humans, but they're beautiful creatures. Mothers still protect the young and their nature of being soulless is still something scientists debate about. A rock rolled off on a slab behind black. With a twitch of her bow, Gambol Shroud was at the ready the moment Blake caught it.

"Hey Blake." Yang smiled and waved at her partner. Blake sighed and lowered Gambol Shroud.

"What'cha doing?" Yang asked as she walked beside Blake.

"Just guarding this post. You already knew the answer to that." Blake's amber eyes rolled.

"I know, but do you have any better icebreakers?" Yang retorted.

"I do."

…

"Well? What are they?" Yang scanned around to the ruined buildings.

"What?" Blake blinked.

"What are these so called icebreakers?"

"It comes down to responding to the questions people ask me." Blake answered honestly.

Yang rolled her eyes this time. Since the initiation trial. It seemed that this is what how it boiled down to for the partners. Blake isn't a people person while Yang is the opposite of her. Loud, upbeat, and anxious when something interests her. Blake on the other hand, was still bit of a mystery. The only thing Yang evoked much of reaction out of her was when Yang talked of something that would spark a debate. Whether it be the treatment of the Faunus, hypocrites of the Kingdoms, and hunting down Roman Torchwick.

Yang looked out to the street. Mount Glenn, just something felt off about the place. According to the textbooks, the streets of the place were fill to the brim with workers, families and Grimm. Hunters came by the dozen in its defense. Still, many died regardless of what happened.

Yang could just feel Blake's vibe of confusion. Something this horrible to happen so close to the capital. Atlas didn't get the news fast enough, Vacuo was the main Kingdom that offered its military in the evacuation. Her playful manner won't work here.

"Are you still mad about Roman?" Yang asked the real question now.

"Yes." Blake didn't hesitate in her response.

"I hope you still think about we talked about."

"About slowing down?" Blake still stared at her surroundings.

"Yep." Yang felt like she was being talked down to.

"I remember, I think I'm better now than I was back then." Blake shrugged. What she referred to was back when RWBY wanted to start a new investigation on the criminal Roman Torchwick. He apparently made contact with the White Fang and actively takes part in the during recruitment rallies. The team split up that night to start it off that way. The same night the Tasteful Nightclub was apparently attacked by the Payday Gang.

"Weiss got a signal on one of the skyscrapers. She checked the news and nothing new on the Payday Gang." Yang informed Blake the reason of her visit.

Junior's gang was crippled but not totally destroyed. Which was odd, since less than a week later, the Commissar operations was completely decimated. It didn't add up. Blake and Weiss knew it as they did some investigating on the side back at Beacon. All they could find was just speculation.

There was the White Fang, Torchwick, and the Payday Gang. Something big was in the works and Blake didn't like it.

Neither did Yang, however, her reason was to simply get back at one of the Payday Gang members.

"We're still doing our research Yang." Blake finally gave a competent response.

"I know, just let me know when we're on their trail. I want to punch one of them in his fucking face."

Blake chuckled.

"I know how you feel. Like what you told me Yang. 'Don't stop the search, but what good are we if we destroy ourselves in the process?'" Blake nudged her partner at the shoulder.

"We already have Weiss, I don't need another broken record." Yang chuckled.

"You told me that we still have to keep at it to find Roman." Blake turned to Yang. "I think that implies to your hunt with the Payday Gang. We'll find them and learn the truth."

"Yeah…" Yang looked to the concrete and recalled the fight she had with one of them in the CCT.

Yang was so focused on the fight, she didn't let herself really remember her opponent. Just the suit and the mask. Even then, the mask was just a blur. All Yang could remember is the burning anger to know that someone got the better of her. Proven through the hairs he claimed… Fucking asshole.

Blake and Yang watched the street in silence. Just with the typical small talk now that the real conversation was out of the way. Yang found Blake's smut book deep inside her backpack. Blake hated it when Yang would find them and hide the books somewhere else. They softened and talked normally to each other.

It kept that way for a good twenty minutes until Weiss came out to fetch them.

The day RWBY returned to Vale. Two days later. Same day as the Heist.

Yang reached for the sky as she stretched her back. The airship ride was always her least favorite part of being a Huntress. All that waiting and to be cooped up in some metal can for something to swat her out of the sky. Yang liked to be the master of her own destiny.

Ruby fanned her mouth then rubbed the crust out her eyes as she woke up from a nap. During the whole mission, it just involved killing Grimm and inescapable lectures from Dr. Oobleck. Blake and Ruby didn't mind, but Yang and Weiss thought to opposite.

During the whole trip, every now and again, Blake would remember the conversation she had with Dr. Oobleck. It was unusual. She never met anyone in her life that had to deal with some large event in their life that could have defined them. Oobleck told her that Remnant would rather bury him than allow him to pursue his career. With that lesson, Blake felt like it wasn't her place to run off and tell her team about him. It just didn't feel right, considering Blake's old ties to the White Fang. Hypocrisy is something that often weighed on her mind.

"So where do we go first?" Ruby asked in a bubbly fashion as she walked in front of her team.

"Let's just head back to the dorm. I'm tired." Weiss groaned.

Behind them, Oobleck walked out of the airship with his head held high and the orange glow of the sun on his glasses. "Well girls it was fun to work beside you. I hope each of you learned something on the mission. Now if you excuse me. Your dog is just calling out my name." Oobleck smiled as he raised his left leg.

"Wait, Doctor." Yang called out.

"Yes Yang?" Oobleck asked with his leg still at the ready.

"You know, it was kinda cool that you got to help us out on the mission. You got moxxy."

"Thank you young lady. Each of you have proven yourselves quite admirably. Now if you excuse me." Oobleck nodded then sped off down the airship sidewalk. Ruby waved at him as he disappeared from view.

"Let's just head to the dorm." Blake pulled her shoulders back now they're outside.

"We can't just head back just because you want to read your smut books again. Don't you?" Weiss did a light laugh at the end.

"No." Blake sternly fired back.

"Whatever. Let's go check in with JNPR or JAWS." Ruby stuck her finger up in a fit of excitement, then remembered something important. "Oh yeah. I don't think JAWS is back. They're on a mission."

"Vomit boy and his crew?" Yang smiled. "Probably got stuck with someone lame."

"Wait. Ruby, how did you know that?" Weiss asked.

"Every night I went to the top floor of the skyscraper to talk to Pyrrha, Ren or Nora."

"How were you able to talk to them?" Blake asked.

"With this." Ruby reached into her bag and pulled out a portable charger. "None of you have one?"

"You really surprise me sometimes Ruby." Weiss face palmed.

"Yay. I can surprise people."

"Wait, no Jaune?" Weiss asked.

"Nope, Pyrrha told me that Jaune was out with JAWS on a mission several days ago. So they're probably not back yet."

"So who was their team paired up with?" Yang asked again.

"I'm not sure." Ruby rested her hand on her chin. "It was something like TG no no, it was TJaaaaayyyy…." Then Ruby's eyes widened. "I remember now. It was TJ Abyss."

"Never heard of him." Blake and Weiss said at the same time.

"NO WAY!" Yang grabbed Ruby's shoulders. "Are you telling me that Boxing Champion of the Hunter's Brawling Commission got paired with JAWS!?"

"That was what I just said." Ruby tilted her head.

"NO WAY!" Yang looked to the sky in angst.

"What, all I said was TJ Abyss worked with JAWS." Ruby shrugged to Weiss.

"I think it's more than that Ruby." Blake responded.

"Those lucky-" Yang started to shout to herself as Blake cupped Ruby's ears. Yang's colorful vocabulary shined as through Weiss' expressions of disgust. Once Yang stopped to collect herself. Blake moved her hands away.

Yang took another deep breath so she could shout some more. Weiss this time cupped Ruby's ears. Yang shouted some more as she finally looked to the ground. Weiss moved her hands away.

"It just really sucks they get to hang out with the Champ and not us… We got stuck with Professor Glasses talking man…"

"It's Doctor!" A voice shouted out toward the airship strip. Blake focused her vision to see Dr. Oobleck waving his hand out a window with Zwei other arm cuddling the little dog. It barked several times.

The team just shrugged and returned to their dorms. The moment they entered, Weiss and Blake both dropped to their beds. Yang took out Ember Celica and started to calibrate the weapon's functions. Ruby walked to her beloved cookie jar. A small red ball with the flat bottom was a Ruby only treat. The red color of it had duel meaning to it, how it belonged to her and what the person would see if they messed with it. Completely undisturbed.

…

After 30 minutes each to themselves the team collectively looked at each other.

"I'm bored." Weiss was the first say what was on their minds.

"Wanna go to Vale?" Blake asked.

"Sure." Ruby finished the last of her snacks away so it was time to get a refill anyway.

After getting dressing up in lighter clothing with what they're comfortable with. The team made their way to the airship again. This time Weiss alerted her private airship to pick her team up this time.

Each of them wanted to make a trip somewhere. So naturally, Ruby said it was the duty of the team to visit each place they wanted to go. Ruby want go a very specific grocery store and that was the place they had to visit first. By order of their leader.

The day was went from the afternoon to the almost the evening time. Ruby got her cookies, Blake with her new books, Yang of her newest Brawling Today magazine. The only one left out was Weiss. She wanted to go to her favorite small time dust store. Sure she could order it via her family, but Weiss liked having a reason to come out to the city.

They walked to the through the city and it wasn't too bad. For Weiss, it got much worse since they arrived into the main district that Weiss like to walk through.

"Whoa!" Ruby said bewildered by the cool lights and the colors of the place. It felt so alive in this place.

"I'd have to agree with her on this one." Blake nodded to the sight of the place.

This place was called the Phoenix District, a place of bright colors and small businesses. Also in the place didn't get much light since it was deep downtown. About 10 blocks away from the Maelstrom District. The place here had made use of the color orange. As in the lights around here had colored paper wrapped outside of the glass. So it had a glow about it. Weiss came here by chance several days after she started at Beacon.

It was a funny little discovery for her.

The streets on this district where narrow and was meant for public walking. It was a nice change and here, people look to be out and about. Several street venders offered their wares and several food venders were there. Ruby and Yang were hungry. So the team split up as the sisters disappeared from view. Weiss and Blake just shrugged and continued to this dust shop.

"Anything big going to happen at the festival?" Weiss asked.

"Not that I know of." Blake replied. The festival was still going on and can be considered an event that could go on for several weeks. The tournament wasn't exactly set yet since more students from other kingdoms have yet to arrive and compete. So the mission assignments was also something for the home kingdom to get that one little extra bit of training.

"I looked up the records of the area." Weiss looked around. "I checked the Payday Gang's MO and cross referenced them to Roman Torchwick. The Payday Gang like to keep things simple and are their own muscle. Not once have they tried to rob any dust stores and are for profit and profit alone."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "What about the Faunus trafficking club they busted and money lending?"

"That is a new thing onto itself. Most of them got out and used the lien to disappear before any of them could have been caught and interrogated. It's assumed a local must have helped them out. Plus, it's been a while now so we couldn't find one of those girls if we wanted to. Junior's gangsters are sworn to secrecy and sure they're scared of Yang but they won't talk."

"So the theory of the Payday Gang working with Torchwick is still just speculation."

"Indeed. Anyway, I've considered hiring a private investigator. One with combat training and know how to be discreet." Weiss looked up to see the street names. Winston road and Remnant Road. They were close to the store. "I'm sure this could help us out when we can't always be on the look for them."

Blake pursed her lips. "Good idea, someone out all the time to help us would be great."

"Glad to know you agreed with me. Ruby and Yang don't like it." Weiss shrugged.

"You already asked them?"

Weiss nodded. "Back at Mount Glenn, when you were out on watch. That was when I got the idea. They said, that we have decided to this as a team and we only need ourselves. I don't know about them."

"Well you heard what Yang told us. She and Ruby are from Patch. I would assume in small communities that people there are hearty and probably stubborn to ask for help. Hunters there have to be trained to handle the locals in the manner they prefer. It could just be pride… like Yang." Blake made a single light laugh.

"Well I don't see how this could be a bad thing. If anything, it's an extension of my resources. What's the big deal in that?" Weiss asked.

"Well, how often do you relay on said resources?" Blake asked back.

"It's not like I'm spoiled or anything." Weiss huffed.

Weiss shrugged as she and Blake turned at the corner.

"Oh great..." Weiss' shoulders drop as a pair girls came from the street

"What's going on?" Blake looked at the same direction of Weiss.

"Not today Aoife, I don't want to deal with you." Weiss said as she guided several fingers to her forehead.

"Hey there snow bitch." A deep voiced of girl said behind Aoife. Blake looked up to see a young girl.

"See what I mean. Just another one of the flock." The first one had shoulder length brunette hair and she had a nose ring piercing. Her head was slightly narrow as her hair complimented the shape. Her eyebrows were finely shaped and looked well maintained without over plucking.

"Aoife, what do you want now?" Weiss asked in an annoyed tone.

"Kinda whiny isn't she?" The friend to Aoife chuckled. Her tone was deep, like very deep for a woman. She stood several inches taller than Blake. This girl, had black hair cut short at sides with the hair on top being completely combed backward. Appearance wise for her physique, this girl looked to be a tad heavier than what students be expected to look like. Her left eyebrow had a single downward scar. It didn't look serious and she had another scare above her lip on the left side. Just from the vibe of her, Blake could tell she doesn't like to be messed with. Not that Blake wouldn't mind challenging her if it comes that that.

Weiss just looked away and walked tapped Blake's shoulder for the two of them to continue walking.

"See you later." Aoife said in a sarcastic tone.

Then like that, the two of them disappeared from view of the street at the corner.

"Okay, what was that about?" Blake asked.

"Just two simpletons that are just really annoying. I have one of them in my Biology Class. The one with the nose piercing. I got frustrated and she wanted to talk to me. Bad first impressions later… Here we are." Weiss frowned. "Then there's Lea McGee, Aoife's partner. The two are from the same team. I don't know their names and I frankly don't care."

Blake didn't say anything further from Weiss' response to her.

"Why haven't you told us that you were being bullied?"

"A Schnee never gets bullied."

"Apparently you broke that rule." Blake said honestly.

"Well it's not that they're actively seeking me out, it's just the times we encounter each other."

"Have you tried to clear the air with them? A fresh start?" Blake repeated the same helpful words that a character said in one of her books. Not that Blake would ever tell anyone.

"No and should I? I'm obviously the better person. I do not talk like they do." Weiss straightened her posture.

"There's a word call humility, you should try it. It worked on us." Blake lightly smiled at the end.

"Well you all were different. They're just idiots, all of them."

"Whatever you say Weiss." Blake gave up on the conversation. Just as it ended the two of them stood outside the dust shop. The place looked to be rather small and stocked to the brim. Like walking into a Pawn shop that clearly doesn't have enough room to house the space needed for its location. It had a plain vibe to it. A man was the only other customer as Weiss and Blake entered. Blake did some simple browsing and Weiss went all spending crazy. She grabbed several bottles of fire related dust, several ice bottles from the northern region, a vigor dust bottle that was on sale, and several plain vials of the dust Weiss usually works with.

It all took less than ten minutes since Weiss was apparently a quick shopper. She paid on her credit card as the man widened his eyes on the amount of dust Weiss wanted. Blake didn't pay him much attention.

"That'll be 231 lien and .38 cents." The cashier repeated off from the machine.

"Here." Weiss passed him the card.

"Do you think the others want to get something on the way back?" Blake queried.

"Maybe. I'm getting hungry too."

"Let's meet up with them. I don't have to do any kind of shopping."

"Sounds good." Weiss got her card back and the vials were placed back into a plastic bag.

Weiss and Blake walked out the store and walked for a minute or two.

Once the two had a moment of silence both Blake and Weiss' scrolls started to vibrate and ring. It was Yang and Ruby, calling at the same time. Ruby called Blake and Yang called Weiss.

"Hello?" Blake asked.

"Get Over Here Now!" Ruby said in her demanding voice. It wasn't much since of how Ruby confuses being assertive with raising her pitch. It's like a small dog barking at you. You know it's saying something but is too adorable to take seriously.

"Huh?"

"What is it?" Weiss asked.

"There's A Robbery Going Down 1o blocks away. We hear the gunfire. It's the Payday Gang!" Ruby shouted.

Weiss nearly dropped her bag. "Are you SURE!?" Weiss looked at Blake.

"No we're not but we can't take that chance. We're 2 blocks out. Meet us there at corner of Smith Street and Daring Lane. HURRY!" Ruby ended the call the same time Yang did.

"Let's go. I guess we didn't need that investigator at all." Blake chuckled.

"At least I'm trying." Weiss snapped back as the two started to sprint as fast as they could. That wasn't a difficult feat, since the Hunters are expected to run miles on end all the time. Pyrrha Nikos was able to outrun a Death Stalker for 4 miles.

With ever step, the plastic bag flailed about. She would have easily just left her bag behind but Weiss didn't want to lose the limited Dust vials she bought. Those dust vials come around so rarely, Weiss couldn't risk it. It could come in handy. Blake grew excited, the thought of finally figuring out what's happening to the city. This was something they have to do in time.

After eight minutes of constant running, Ruby and Yang came into view.

"Over here!" Ruby shouted. Yang was focused on the direction of the gun fire.

It grew louder as Blake and Weiss reached their teammates.

"Come on, let's rush 'em!" Yang eagerly took a step forward for Weiss to grab her shoulder.

"No, let's think about this."

"What? We stay here and they'll disappear again," Yang looked over her arm in vexation. Blake could see the several flashes of crimson paint over her eyes. Once that happens, it's best to talk to Yang carefully.

"We should cut them off at their escape. Who knows, they probably have a plan and weapons for human targets." Blake offered some logic.

"Or maybe we could catch them totally off guard and take them in for find answers." Yang shot back.

"It sounds like too much of a risk." Ruby was eager to get in there too, her hands were at Crescent Rose for it shift into the weapon form.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" A police officer shouted out RWBY. "Civilians aren't allowed here."

Blake thought that this debate got them nowhere.

"Tell you what. I'll scout ahead and I'll message you on my scroll. Got it?" Blake said only once. The police officer walked to the group with a stern cold stare. Each of them turned around to head back to where the police wanted them. Blake looked the ground in defeat.

"Come on, I think we have to go around." Weiss suggested. Ruby and Yang nodded to the call. So did Blake so too but after it happened, Blake stared to fade away from view. Ruby looked back toward the street to see Blake run along the street and make an immediate turn before any of the police could notice her.

Ruby smiled and walked off with Yang and Weiss.

Blake didn't waste any time as she stared to apply all of her old training techniques. The place Blake turned to was a narrow alleyway. The smell perfumed the place because of two dumpsters. One apparently one of them had an overflow of garbage. Blake held her breath periodically and she drew Gambol Shroud. Above her by ten feet was a fire escape ladder. She effortlessly tossed her weapon upward and hooked the bottom step of the ladder for it to fall down to her level. It rattled several times but it wasn't loud enough to garner any attention.

After climbing the ladder, Blake looked around to see the typical roof stuff. Several fans, air ducks and the rock floor. Blake's shoes brushed along the rocks as she walked across the rooftop. The gun fire grew to be much more sporadic now. As Blake crouched down, she looked over the street below to see several more cops just waiting for something to happen.

"The AO is a colossal goat fuck!" One of the officers shouted over the gun fire.

Blake looked around to see several standard droids move into position. Several sniper droids mobilized. One of the tech officers walked in front of the droids to start the activation codes. A small PDA flickered in the light as Blake watched. Before the droids could be activated. A police officer with a Fedora walked beside the tech officer.

Blake couldn't tell what they were talking about but the tech officer gave plenty of angered facial expressions. The PDA was moved aside as the Fedora officer looked to his right. This in turn caused Blake to look in the same direction. Two droid trucks came into the street. With a smile, the Fedora officer smiled as several junk droids deployed. This wasn't something Blake knew that police would do.

Sure, there are droids in the police and military were allowed to use the things. Blake just didn't know that decommissioned versions were still in some sort of service. The tech officer walked over to the trucks with a frown and pressed several buttons for the droids to stand up. The Fedora officer pointed toward the bank and then it all the droids split apart and sprinted toward the bank. Several of them scrambled over each other, which didn't look right to be approved weapons.

_What's going on?_ Blake asked herself to see these droids, no… Kamikazes sprint through the opening of the Bank.

From there, Blake noticed that these 'new' droids started to jump through windows and the doors without a care in the world. One of the Kamikazes was blasted right back out the window again. Then a streak of blue walked by as it was a member of the Payday Gang, in clown mask. The windows flashed more light the sound of guns didn't die down at all.

Blake looked around to see that the several buildings were close enough for Blake to use to get around. She kept herself low and she was the furthest away from the side of being spotted by the police, Blake jumped across and sprinted to jump around to several other buildings. It wasn't difficult for her to jump, being Faunus and all.

Blake watched as the bank still had gun fire for a few minutes longer. Eventually, Blake received a message from Ruby.

What's going on?- Ruby.

The Payday Gang is here, I'm still watching to see what develops. - Blake.

Blake waited for ten seconds.

Okay. Plz hurry- Ruby.

Blake pocketed her scroll then walked from her corner to get an overview of the street and bank again. The gunfire now hasn't stopped but it came in bursts at this point. Something's up. Then it happened. Blake ducked her head down as she saw a wall of the bank explode outward into an isolated alleyway. Two the Payday Gang members sprinted out with several bags at their backs. Blake could only assume its lien.

"Come on come on!" One of the Payday Gang members shouted back as two more came out of the newly renovated bank. Blake lightly raised her head to get a look at them. She wasn't anywhere close to them. Then with a low hum and a wash of air over her hair. Blake saw an airship hover above the escape van of the Payday Gang. The more of those Kamikaze droids jumped out and completely attack the Van. The wheels started up and the van took off. Blake noticed that there was one Kamikaze on the roof of the van. She pulled out Gambol Shroud and took aim. The van grew in distance, and Blake considered taking a shot at it. Even on this rooftop, it could meant for her to be spotted by the police then for them to assume she's an accomplice. That could mean digging into her past… Her old ties to the White Fang would come into question. So in the end, Blake decided to not even take the risk. Just chalk this up as another missed opportunity.

Blake was about ready to get up and just return to her team until she noticed the Payday van swerve to the side. It crashed in the distance… she holstered Gambol Shroud then started to run along the rooftops to get the site.

On every jump, Blake landed on great form and didn't slow down as the sirens blared in the distance. The Bank was probably being cleared out the by police at this point. At so just what Blake could assume. Eventually, Blake stood two buildings away from the crash site.

Blake's bow twitched on the left side. Then the door of the van burst open and three members of the Payday Gang walked out loading their weapons.

"ARGH!" One of them shouted. Blake focused her vision to see that the one of them was hurt

_What's going on?_ Blake asked herself as the Payday Gang started to rally themselves.

One of them pointed toward the driver's side of the van and one of the four walked over and pulled out the driver. Then like that, the one with the narrow clown mask kneeled down to apply first aid. The own with a mask that looked rather serious and somewhat happy pointed toward the van.

"We hold here until Twitch is bandaged up!" The one with the goofy mask shouted. The three members formed a triangle.

"Let's fuck 'em up!" The red mask wearer shouted. It was difficult for Blake to catch any subtleties in their voices. Her bow could be a hindrance at times. But she did catch the label used. Twitch… Twitch… Twitch… She knew that was something she needed to memorize.

Blake looked down and then it happened. Several eager Kamikazes came out of several glass windows and a few more on the street as well. Several orange flashes appeared below. Blake lowered her posture so she could watch the Payday Gang in action.

The one in the letterman jacket drew a crowbar. Which is an interesting choice of a weapon in Blake's mind. It's practical, she'll give it that but not as a full fledge weapon. The one with the red mask, fired controlled shots at the incoming Kamikazes.

Blake took this moment to turn away from the street below and take cover away from the edge of the building. She flicked out her scroll and typed to Ruby.

I'm near the PD Gang. Head 6 blocks east from the bank. Meet up with me. We could probably catch one of them. Watch the metro. - Blake sent her message.

Blake didn't wait for a response to as she looked over the street. Apparently the one with the letterman jacket kicked a Kamikaze backward. The red mask wearer lowered his shoulder so the droid could be lifted over him. Once the thing landed on its back, the goofy mask shot it directly into the visor. He nodded to his lackeys.

_They're comfortable enough to be a team. So what does this mean for them in the long run?_ Blake asked herself as she continued to watch over them. A Knight's SR came into play as the goofy mask wearer crouched down and took several shots at incoming Kamikazes.

Several droids were taken down on six shots. _So he's a decent shot._

The red mask wearer swept his legs as the droid jumped over the attack and straight into the crowbar of the letterman jacket. He lifted the machine upward and twisted the crowbar and quickly pulled it out then stabbed the middle of the visor then extracted the helmet from its socket. Blake couldn't tell if the letterman was a he or she, sure the jacket looked masculine by frame but it could be play of appearances.

Then all of a sudden, the team shifted form it's formation of a triangle and the one with the narrow clown mask offered his shoulder to help the driver. The goofy mask and the red mask leaned close to one another and then the red mask wearer pointed toward the subway system.

The last Kamikaze of the wave was destroyed by the letterman jacket wearer. Blake didn't know what to think of the chicken mask it had encompassing the head.

Blake looked away from the street then she decided to make a call to Weiss. With very little words used, Blake ordered the team to enter then subway system and to get ready to cut off the Payday Gang if they're lucky. Just as Blake ended the phone call, she looked down to see that the Payday Gang were already gone, she'd have to hurry to keep up.

Blake hooked Gambol Shroud to the edge and then she jumped off the roof. She dropped several floors and it swing slightly to the side, then once Blake was close enough she pressed a button for her weapon to retract and Gambol Shroud reeled back together as jumped to the ground and rolled forward to shake off the momentum. She brushed her hair once for several pebbles to fall out. Blake crossed the street as and turned to the entrance of the subway.

There wasn't much time. Blake looked into the staircase and didn't think much of it as she place her feet carefully. Then at the bottom, Blake was about ready to turn a corner as a several bullets struck the wall she would have been, thanks to her semblance.

_Were they waiting for me!?_ Blake placed her back to the wall right before the turn off form the staircase. The gunfire was sporadic and didn't look to be aimed all that well. With a raised eye brow, Blake sent her shadow self out into the open so she could look into the hall without the fear of being shot. The flashes of light came from below but no creepy image of a mask flashed with it. That means one thing, artificial guns, AKA Sentry turrets. Blake applied the same strategy again. This time, Blake got a better look at what shot at her. Her semblance can only last several seconds and the sentry turrets would put a bullet in her before she could even have the chance to get close enough. There were three in total, and she didn't want to risk her own personal safety.

To pull her away from her thoughts, Blake received a message from Ruby.

Blake, come around by two blocks, we found a terminal station and we'll start our search. Get over her quick! - Ruby.

It was better than risking her head being shot off. Blake pressed the button for her scroll to close and she went back up the staircase. Once she reached the top, the police have yet to arrive at the crashed van sight. Which was extremely unusual, but this wasn't the time to think about that at the moment. Blake had to double time it to her team. She used an empty alleyway to see another subway staircase that Ruby probably talked about. She ran toward it and jogged down the steps. Once Blake reached the bottom, she took a moment to catch her breath, she could still go further but she can't overexert herself.

There wasn't any time to lose, Blake collected herself then continued to sprint along only hallway the subway offered. It was long and narrow, and still no sign of her team or the Paydays. Maybe Ruby told her the wrong directions. Eventually, Blake came across a three way turn off as her right is another long hallway while on her right looked to be some open space.

Blake shook her head then decided to take the right turn. The moment she walked out of the hall, cold steel brushed along her chest.

"Took you long enough." Weiss said in a low tone. "We heard some movement ahead of us."

"One of them is hurt."

"Good, that means they probably didn't get far." Weiss stated while she moved her weapon away.

Yang stood at several feet away and had an eager look about her. Blake noticed that Yang clenched her teeth and her left hand started to stroke Ember Celica. Something about it, unsettled Blake.

The team stood in silence for several minutes, the voices grew louder and echoing footsteps got closer to RWBY. Then it happened… one no, two of the Payday Gang members walked into the open. The one with the chicken mask and goofy mask.

"I see them." Ruby smiled as she looked through the scope of Crescent Rose. Yang took a step forward.

"Blake could you get above them?" Ruby requested.

This was a trap, plain and simple. Before Blake made her move, Ruby fired her weapon.

A flash of light grazed along the floor.

"You missed." Weiss said in bitter sarcasm.

"And you gave us away... I thought the purpose of a surprise attack was to catch them off guard." Blake pointed out

"But that wouldn't be fair." Ruby whined.

...

The one with the goofy mask shook his head.

"Uh girls. We should probably stop bickering and just catch them." Blake pointed out.

Just then, the rest of the Payday Gang made their turn at the corner. The one with the narrow mask and red mask.

"Stop right there Evil doers, for we are her to stop you." Ruby stated. Yang walked through the team and she raised her hands to the ceiling then brought Ember Celica together.

"You ready for round 2?" Yang sneered. The fight was on.

Both sides exchanged words with each other. Ruby clearly had no experience in talking with criminals.

The chicken wearer made a single step to his right, Blake drew Gambol Stroud then aimed it at him.

"Not one more step." Blake didn't even hesitate or blink when her weapon was drawn. At any moment, these criminals would try something funny. Not on Blake's watch.

"Shouldn't we talk about this?" Blake heard Ruby right behind her.

The wounded member of the Paydays could just be making some form of distraction. The goofy mask wearer took a single step. In fairness, Blake warned them.

Blake fired a bullet between goofy and the wounded one.

"I said DON'T MOVE!"

Just by the body language, the Payday Gang wasn't going to back down. Then one of them drew a sword that was shaped like a sickle.

"You!" Yang snapped into action.

Blake didn't think of much but of the situation to bring one of them to their knees. The one with the narrow clown mask of the pink painted lips was her target. He seemed to be high in spirit to clash with Gambol Shroud. It went back and forth for the duration of the fight. Blake kept her head about her as she fought one of them. It went on for a minute or two. Then the Payday Gang completely broke apart to target other members. RWBY responded quickly by regrouping.

Blake stood beside Yang.

"How do you feel?" Blake asked.

"Fantastic. We finally have them." Yang smiled to herself.

"Remember, we're just here to catch them."

Yang didn't respond right way.

"Yang?" Blake asked as the Payday Gang sprang into action.

The fighting continued some more as the Payday Gang initiated some plan. Weiss was incapacitated by some form of gooey substance. And Yang looked to be angrier by the second. Then it happened.

During the fight, Blake noticed something come from the ceiling as two of the Payday members turned away from the fight to save their friend or accomplice. That didn't stop Yang with the red in her eyes to go after them

"Yang Wait!" Blake shouted but she was too late.

Yang punched a member full force into the concrete. Blake couldn't believe what she saw.

From all the time Blake knew of Yang. She was a good friend, great fighter, and was generally a fair person. But from this single encounter to the Payday Gang, Blake witnessed how far Yang was willing to go. To attack others when they're trying to protect a friend. Blake couldn't think of the word to describe it.

"AAAAHHHH!" Goofy screamed at Yang as he charged forward enraged.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!" Goofy shoved Yang backward and as she fell, goofy caught then stared at her.

Crescent looked down to Wolfe then back to Yang. Ruby, Blake and Weiss all tried to make a move forward but chicken and clown mask didn't let up.

"You BITCH!" Then like that, goofy head-butted Yang at the bridge of her nose. It didn't cause any real pain to her but it cemented the Goofball mask into her memory. Goofy let go of Yang as if he was disgusted to even touch her. Blake shook her head and wanted to make a move.

Once Yang was in the clear thanks to Weiss, the goofy mask man tossed several dust object on the ceiling.

"Here's your dust damn rematch!" Goofy shouted as he aimed his SR. The other Paydays helped their members get out of the terminal.

"You might want another barrier." Goofy sneered as the pressed the detonator above. The concrete broke apart and seeing the danger of it. Myrtenaster pointed downward again for an ice barrier to form around RWBY as the ceiling collapsed above them.

"Will this work?" Blake aske on a whim as a large piece of concreter smashed into the ice barrier.

"I have no idea." Weiss shot back. The team stayed inside that barrier for a good twenty minutes as the ground around them finally stopped rumbling.

Yang leaned her back against a wall of the barrier as this debris fell around them. Ruby had Crescent Rose retracted and she hugged her legs. Weiss kept her weapon at the ready in case another layer was needed on the barrier. Blake just sat beside Ruby with her legs crisscrossed. Team RWBY was in complete silence for the duration of the barrier.

Once it was over, Yang and Weiss used their abilities to move the rubble out the way. When they got out, the police noticed the girls and RWBY lied about the reason they came across the Payday Gang. It was by chance and they tried to stop them. There wasn't much the police could do since Huntress were seen as an extension of the will of the people. When the police ran out of redundant questions, RWBY was free to leave.

They were in complete silence to each other again. Weiss, Blake and Ruby saw it what happened clearly. They walked ahead of Yang and avoided any form of communication. The walk to a close airship station was cold even when he people walked outside as it was still barely the end of summer. The wind felt bitter however, especially to Blake. Weiss called her airship driver for pickup.

The team made it back to Beacon with their heads held low. Ruby walked at an abnormally fast pace as Weiss struggled to keep up. The airship strip back to Beacon was a long and the bitter wind continued to breeze through Blake's hair.

Blake stopped in her tracks which caused Yang to do the same.

"Are we going to talk about it?" Blake said deadpanned.

"About what? How they threatened my team and my sister." Yang snapped back.

"I thought we just want to catch the Payday Gang." Blake spoke in a low tone.

"We almost had them."

"Yang, you tried to _kill_ one of them!" Blake said was on RWBY's mind.

.

.

.

"Answer me Yang." Blake almost brought her voice to a shout.

"So what?" Yang shrugged.

Blake blinked her eyes in response. "We just wanted to catch them, remember that? Or did that just go in one ear and out the other!?" Blake stepped forward to Yang. "How could you carelessly carry yourself out like that?"

"As if you would have done something different if we ever caught up to Roman Torchwick again." Yang shot back. "You ran yourself ragged in the need to catch him. We talked about this, do you remember that catnip?"

Blake looked away from Yang. "Those Payday fuckers, they deserve what's coming to them."

"Is this because the one with the sickle blade did to embarrass you. Is that it?"

"No." Yang frowned and took a step forward. "It's not."

"Well that's what it seems like to me Yang."

"Why are you being so hypocritical to me, Blake? Weren't you just as ready to go out in Vale and try to kill Roman Torchwick? How you spent weeks ignoring school work and blowing us off on everything, and even the dance? Ring any bells?"

"They are ringing but I wouldn't try to kill Roman. He has to pay for his crimes."

"So says you."

This was getting them nowhere. So Blake had to adjust her stragety.

"Even Ruby is scared of what she saw back there. Maybe you really did kill that guy? What will that prove?"

"That I'm better than them." Yang looked at Blake. Right in her amber eyes.

Blake looked to the ground. For the past several months on this team, Blake felt that she could really belong to something. While at this moment, her very own partner just told her a phrase that Blake tried so hard to forget.

'We're better than them.'

Those were the words that Faunus trainees were told to believe in the White Fang. That humans are lesser beings of the Remnant. At that moment, Blake just heard those very words come out her partner and best friend's lips. She didn't know what to think.

"Well, I guess you have your answer." Blake didn't bother to look back at Yang. Once Blake had her back to Yang, she felt some pressure on her left shoulder. Blake rolled her shoulder just to get Yang's hand off of her.

"Don't… talk… to me." Blake still made sure not to look at Yang. She didn't hear any footsteps as she walked away. Which was fitting, since given what Yang almost could have done that night.

Just on her way to the dorm, Blake could just tell, that she wasn't going to get much sleep that night… Which was a good thing, because how else was Blake supposed to know that Yang wouldn't enter the dorm room an hour later.

Something felt off and Blake didn't know how else to explain it… So she just settled a restless night instead…

**Hello everybody. Yeah… sorry about the lack of the Payday crew but this was another thing I needed to write. Please understand. Glad to know that RWBY Volume 3 is coming out and there's something freaky about it. The day Volume 3 is supposed to premiere, is the same day as the one year anniversity of this story. How cool is that? Well thank you so much for reading. Please leave a review and have a great day. Response Corner time.**

**eugenio4078:** Yeah, it's still a progressive story. I hope you like this chapter. Well I probably won't a training montage but we'll see.

**Buddy: **Wow, I'm delighted that you feel that way for my story. I do think the story is turning much much better than I expected it to be. I would say more about the Jacket, but that would be spoiler territory. Thank you so much for reading.

**LS14:** Still appreciating your support.

**Harutora75:** Yay, I'm glad you feel that way. I think I'll be okay but I'll still PM you if I need help. Yeah, I remember your old user name. I guess I need to update the older chapters of it. Thank you for reading and have a great day.

**Guest:** Well if that happened, Yang could dish it right back, literally. The Payday Gang are always improving.

**MrGreen37:** Yeah, but for the RWBY side, there were some serious reprocussions. The Payday Gang are a really good team.

**Supernoob257:** Well, I would say much more about Winters but that would be spoiler territory. Still though, I was kind of disappointed in the Captain. Everyone online just blows him and his shield crew to kingdom come. Thank you so much for reading and have an excellent day.

**King-of-Madness 19: **Glad that you think that way of my story. Plenty of people have asked me about the Hoxton Breakout. I have something special for it. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.


	30. Chapter 30, The Loss of Freelancers

Jaune opened his eyes and stared at Wolfe's ceiling. Dull and had several odd formations to it that for some reason, Jaune's eyes couldn't help but follow. It lead him to follow the invisible lines he created for himself to follow along to other cracks. After twenty minutes, Jaune had this weird little pattern to follow. He even mapped out a several smiley faces if he were to really concentrate hard enough.

"Morning jack hole." Wolfe completely broke Jaune's little game.

"Morning Wolfey." Jaune shot back as he rolled to his side to get a clear view of the living room. "How's the arm?"

"A little sore but I still got my facilities." Wolfe shrugged as he walked by to stand in front of his couch. Jaune rolled his legs to his right so he could balance himself upward. On the days Jaune comes to visit, he sleeps on Wolfe's couch. Jacket and Daniel aren't too keen on sharing a twin sized bed with another person.

"What time is it?" Jaune yawned as the warm blankets rolled to the side for his wrinkled sweater to roll downward.

"About ten 'o'clock."

"I really slept in." Jaune blinked then leaned back on the couch.

"That's early compared to Jacket and super late to Daniel." Wolfe chuckled.

"How were they last night?"

"I was there, dude. Not much else I could tell ya." Wolfe sat down.

"I know but it still helps me on the status of my team."

"Jacket's generally okay. Something about the explosion had him on edge. Daniel seemed fine. With his encounter with Blake and Weiss, there isn't anything of note."

"Hmm." Jaune cast the blanket aside. He was still dressed in the clothes he would normally wear at Beacon.

The two of them started to talk to each other on the current situation and what they'll need in order to continue the Payday Gang's operations. Just the usual stuff. Equipment, jobs and money.

Down the hall and on the second door to the right, was Jacket's room. In it, was a complete mess. Empty bags of food were everywhere along with empty soda cans and clothes tossed in every direction. Jacket wasn't a very tidy person. He could recall all the one sided conversations he had with Wolfe and Daniel about the state of his room.

On the bed, sat Jacket. He stared at the ceiling but his mind was somewhere else entirely. Since the battle with RWBY, something has bugged him. Jacket still in no way voiced it to his team but it felt familiar. Once the underground terminal started to collapse, Jacket during that time, felt completely calm and centered with himself. Then the image popped in his head like a 100 times since the explosion.

The man with a beard. Jacket had a feeling about that man. It didn't feel romantic nor saddening… just calm…

Jacket lifted his leg upward so his other crossed leg could support the weight. His hands were at his back so he could lift his head slightly upward.

The way the area shook around him, it felt like he knew what was happening. A similar feeling to his feet in the small tremors. Sure the Payday Gang wasn't in harm's way anymore but still it bugged the ever living hell out of him.

Jacket kept thinking and thinking… He didn't know the answer to a question he wasn't sure he wanted to ask…

Jacket looked away from the ceiling to bring himself back to reality. He blinked his eyes several times and looked to his desk table. On it was a bag of Doritos beckoning to him. Just something for him to enjoy on most mornings. Jacket leaned off his bed and walked to his table.

The bag was taken in hand and he pulled apart the top for the succulent smell of the snack made him lick his lips. Jacket returned to his bed to ravage his snack.

At the corner of his room, Jacket had a pile of old tapes from when he came across an antique store. He bought as much as he could and had about 2 dozen of them. It would take hours for him to sort out the lines for his mixed tapes. It was also kind of relaxing to him too. With a crunch at his teeth, Jacket looked at the tapes again then shrugged.

Next door sat Daniel's room. Being the tidy and neat one of his roommates. He was already awake and hovered over his desk. Several spiral notebooks were opened and he constantly continued to write down the notes he would need later on for a chapter the class will talk about in two weeks. He was already behind on that, his routine was for him to be three weeks ahead for his notes to sink in to his mind.

OH THE AGONY!

Daniel moved his mechanical pencil as fast as he could as he read off the specific vocabulary from his textbook. He wrote down all the specific words he assumes he would have to know in order to understand what the instructor would say. How he did so was to write the word in question, underline it with a green pen, then give the definition.

It was odd to want to be ahead of the class but he grew up with the habit. Haven wasn't a particular place to take note, however Applewood was. The place didn't have a barrier or a wall to protect the town. So in times of a situation, the people there adapted to be semi-hunters. All around the settlement was a nothing but the grassy plains. Whoever would live there for several years and come away from it were basically partial hunters. The Grimm were a daily occurrence, so the people there had to better themselves against the threat of it. Applewood was the place Daniel grew up with his mother when his parents separated.

The school there didn't have much to offer in the way of payment toward teachers. It didn't stop them from doing their best for the children and sometimes adults from learning something new. Education wasn't seen as a responsibility but more of a social thing and everyone was welcomed.

In Applewood, several teachers were hired by the community and most kids took part of combat training. With all the Grimm that could come from any direction, the children were taught on how to defend themselves. The parents supported it and it was just a basic skill. Daniel wasn't any different.

The people there were hearty and loved to take care of each other. Daniel's mother Irene was crafted by the town. When Daniel wasn't playing with the other kids, Irene would help him with his school work. There in Applewood, the children were taught to think education was rather important. The townspeople would have the children meet up for them to study and to interact with each other. Daniel loved it.

It became even more fun when Nathan would come to visit…

Daniel stopped writing notes completely.

Nathan.

Daniel stared off into his textbook and thought about the times Nathan would visit. It was always about the adventure to do something cool and fun. Daniel and Nathan played together and thought of stuff to do all the time. It drove Irene crazy sometimes but that was what memories were for. Such as, Daniel was the hide and seek champion among the kids and Nathan. Daniel didn't understand the concept of semblances that much back then so how could he know it was a form of cheating?

Both of the brothers talked didn't about the divorce that much. It bothered the both of them but they had each other. In the early years, Nathan and Daniel kept in communication by scroll calls. They would talk for hours and hours. It was definitely a happier time in Daniel's life.

Daniel looked away from his textbook so he could remember to come back from dream land. He looked around his room to see that he was back where he thought he'd be. He continued to write down his notes and didn't think of much but of the letter he left to SHDW. Just something Daniel felt he had to do, after what happened between them.

Daniel had JAWS now and they won't have a procrastinator drag them down on assignments. That would go against his teachings of Applewood.

So there he went, on the writing spree he needed for class. It also kept his sanity from his messy roommates. Daniel still didn't know the exact reason why Jacket or Wolfe wanted to keep their rooms messy. It was beyond him but still though.

From there, Daniel continued to catch up on his studies.

Back in the living room.

"What game do you feel like playing?" Wolfe asked as he browsed through all cases of his video games.

"Nah man, I don't think I'll be able to play anything today. We got some work to do." Jaune had an idea in the back of his head for the longest time.

"Sure, what did you have in mind?"

"Well remember the last time we saw Gage?" Jaune asked and already knew the answer.

"Sure. What about him?"

"We're going shopping later."

"Awesome." Wolfe lowered one of the game cases.

"But we got to make a stop first." Jaune said as he glanced toward the shoes to put on.

Beacon Academy 1 hour later.

Jaune, Daniel and Wolfe all walked down the airship strip to the main sidewalk of the academy.

"Alright guys, sorry I had to do this to you."

"It's no problem man." Wolfe smiled.

"Wait for it." Daniel said to Jaune before he could speak.

"Besides I want to check up with Vivian."

"There it is." Daniel laughed at the end of his sentence.

"Isn't she going on a mission?" Jaune pondered out loud.

"No, her team are about to be sent on one in several days. Plus, I owe her an apology."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. Back for the incident yesterday, I had to cancel some evening plans. She didn't mind but I just feel bad about it." Wolfe shrugged.

"I can't blame you then." Jaune shrugged.

Wolfe nodded and turned out toward the main courtyard. He could see that the students were much more active than it was a week earlier. It must be that the some of the teams are coming back from their missions. Not that he should be surprised.

Jacket decided to stay behind at Wolfe's place because he want to work on his mix tapes. Several dozen of tapes he bought off the scroll net came in to the mail several days and he'd been blowing it off for too long.

"What's the plan?"

The reason for the visit to the academy was so that Jaune could get some spare clothes and his second hoodie for Wolfe's place. Jaune got kind of tired having to make runs back and forth all the time. It probably isn't uncommon among for the leaders who had to stick it out for two teams, as much as Jaune wanted to meet one.

Once that was dealt with, Wolfe found his perfect moment to slip away.

"I'll see you guys around." Wolfe waved Daniel and Jaune off.

"Well that went quickly." Jaune giggled and Daniel did the same. "Do you have to do anything here at the academy?"

"Well I just wanted to say hi to a couple of friends." Daniel said rather casually.

Jaune let a small moment a silence between them.

"Do you want me tag along? You know I'm an awesome guy." Jaune played his hand carefully.

"Thanks man, but I'll be alright." Daniel smiled and nodded.

"Are you sure?" Jaune's playful tone dissipated.

"I'm sure man. If I come across one of them, I can handle it." Daniel said in calm tone. It was comforting to Jaune, he didn't downplay the thought on the both of their minds. While at the same time, Jaune still had to show some support if something were to come up with Daniel.

Even with all of his time spent with his sisters, Jaune wasn't too familiar how things will go down between brothers. Jaune and Daniel said their temporary goodbyes.

The area still looked the same as it always has, but nothing of note. Other than how Jaune could see SVER in the distance talking with another team of students.

_Jerks_…

Jaune plotted his mental map to possibly take a route to avoid the team from idol conversation. He just wanted to avoid them, not that it mattered much.

Surely enough, the next best thing happened.

"Morning." A cold familiar voice called out from behind Jaune.

"Morning." Jaune said as he looked over his shoulder. "Cinder."

Cinder looked at Jaune in the same cold calculating smile she usually wore.

Cinder leaned her head back slightly as her eyes narrowed a tad.

"What's eating at you?"

"Oh nothing, just more of the same every day." Jaune lowered his shoulders. A familiar sense of self gain the upper hand as he looked out through the courtyard. Of course, several of the students stared at him and Cinder while most of them didn't care at all. The way Jaune preferred it.

"Delightful." Cinder rolled her eyes. Today was probably the most casual Jaune has ever seen Cinder dress. For her shoes, she had a pair of black athletic shoes with crimson trimmings, black socks that only went as halfway up her ankles, pure white capris pants, with a purple long sleeve V-neck shirt. It worked for what it was.

It being the main source of Jaune's new crazy life.

"Yeah. So what's up?" Jaune shrugged. "Besides the sky that is."

"Your humor is really dull has anyone ever told you that?" Cinder knew the question was completely rhetorical.

"It helps me sleep at night." Jaune retorted before Cinder could come up with something even clever in response.

"Is Mercury and Emerald back yet?" Jaune looked over the courtyard as nothing particularly interesting happened nearby. Well sure, some of the people were out talking to each and showing off their main hunter weapons but none of them really garnered much.

Cinder brushed right by Jaune so his arm would move out of her way.

_Well good day to you too._

"What do you feel like talking about today?" Jaune asked as he jogged for a moment to catch up with Cinder.

"They're still on their own private business." Cinder turned her head slightly as she walked away from the courtyard into more secluded sections of outdoors of the academy. Jaune followed her but made sure not to possibly interfere with her personal space.

Jaune and Cinder walked in complete silence.

_This place is still too much in public if she wanted to kill me._

Ten steps forward.

_Wait a second… what if she has an accident planned_.

Twenty steps forward.

_She probably even has a sniper fixated on me right now._

Thirty steps. Jaune barely rotated his head nor make any sudden moves. His eyes glanced toward possible vantage points. There were a dozen different locations and that alone was enough to unsettle him about Cinder.

_I knew I should have wrote a letter or something_.

"We're here." Cinder stated as she stood beside the doorway to the transfer student dorm. Cinder stood beside the doorway and Jaune just stared at her in return.

"Well?" Cinder inquired with her calm tone.

"Well what?" Jaune looked to his left and right.

"Idiot." Cinder shifted her eyes. "The door."

"You want me to open it for you?"

"That's the idea. If you have underlings, why do it yourself?"

"Well you have arms and that sounds counterintuitive."

Cinder blinked at him.

Jaune knew this would get him nowhere. So in a bitter moment of submission, Jaune opened the door for Cinder.

"Happy now?"

"Don't ask too many questions."

"Fair enough." Jaune rolled his eyes the moment Cinder passed him.

_Why do__ I always have to be the one for this kind of crap?_ Jaune had all too familiar memories flash in his mind.

Jaune shrugged as he entered the building. From previous visits, the transfer students were usually split about since even though the Kingdoms are technically at peace, which won't stop ethnocentrisms and culture shock between some of the students. One occasion, students from Mistral and Atlas looked down upon Vacuo students because of the lack of an official uniform of their respective kingdom. To make up for this, Beacon had three dorms specifically built to house all students in different dorms. Which was again, counterintuitive. In preparation of the festival of peace was diversity, more specifically separate but equal students…

Jaune realized by this point the last thought was completely useless since he just entered Cinder's team dorm room. It looked generally the same but with the lack of people. The last time Jaune was here was right after his Art Gallery heist.

"Before you ask your typical stupid question. No, Neo isn't back either."

"Not what I was going to ask but okay."

"Enough of this. Here, I just wanted to return these infernal mini books to you." Cinder walked to a desk on the opposite wall of the main doorway entrance.

"It's comic books." Jaune slightly raised his left hand to correct her.

"Whatever. Just take them and leave." Cinder lifted the bag with ease.

"Why, what's wrong with them?" Jaune grew worried of the potential damage of the limited edition comics held onto for a long time. Back when he let her borrow his comic book bag, he didn't think it through all that much.

"Youdidn'tburnthemdidyou?" Jaune spoke rapidly as he opened the bag to view the contents.

"That's a good idea." Cinder scoffed at his expense.

Jaune became quickly relieved the moment he noticed that the comics were fine. Each of them their protective sleeve and spine. Jaune sighed in relief. Once he lifted the bag, it felt off. He shouldered it and looked toward Cinder, it felt lighter. Jaune lowered his bag and opened it up again and look through several of the titles.

"Where are my Freelancer comics?" Jaune answered his own question.

"I've decided to appropriate them for myself. I grew rather fond of that series." Cinder glanced to the other side of the room to see a small stack of the Freelancer comic books.

"Then why use the word _Infernal_?"

"Well half of what you have in there are rather boring and some issues are just flat out pointless and therefore, a waste of my time."

"I take it there's another reason you're going to add to that." Jaune closed the bag again.

"On multiple occasions, student of the quiet nature would get close and try to talk to me. I ignored the first one but then it just got flat out irritating." Cinder placed her index and middle finger to her forehead. "So I often had to take the comics to my dorm on later occasions just to read the damn things."

_Well then you shouldn't have tried to read them in public. I guess that's on me too…_

"Ookaaay. Then why are you claiming my Freelancer series?"

"I like the characters and the artwork. I don't need another reason." Cinder moved her hand away from her head.

"Not even for the writing?"

"Meh." Cinder tilted her head slightly as she shrugged.

_Wow, I never thought Cinder would use the word 'Meh' to describe something_.

"Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?" Jaune leaned back slightly.

"Nothing really. Just going to deal with my boredom by playing pranks on couple of people. Maybe go for a walk around the town." Cinder crossed her arms.

"Ah. Well, I'm going to check up on my friends on the way out." Jaune turned around.

Cinder did a not so subtle chuckle which in turn caused Jaune's fingers to flinch as they reached for the door knob.

"What was that for?" Jaune asked before he could turn around.

"Just the usage of the word _friend_." Cinder looked at if she wanted to laugh even harder.

"Something about it tickle you?"

"Yes, the concept."

"So how you label my friends Daniel and Wolfe?"

"Two morons who don't know how handle the world. Then for them to meet a person like you and exploit your personality." Cinder uncrossed her arms. "I heard of the issue and of Daniel. The moment he gets shoved away and his first instinct was to run home. I'm not sure of this Wolfe person but I could be lead to the same conclusion."

"You mean assumption." Jaune lowered his bag. He didn't want any distractions on this new debate with Cinder. "Conclusion is the same as stating a hypothesis, of which could be debated based on the evidence. You don't know nothing about them."

"Fair play, but my apathy toward them is justified." Cinder raised her head slightly.

Jaune narrowed his eyes. "How would you label the term friendship?"

Cinder scoffed. "Too easy. What friendship and what it amounts to is that there are a least two parties involved. It could be single person or an entire government. What a friend really is; is that the mutual exploitation of the ones involved, such as emotional or physical support. Let's say you had several friends grow up from where came from. They do nice things for you and tell you what you want to hear… only for you to learn they just tolerate you so they could get closer to one of your sisters. How does that feel?" Cinder pressed onward. "Even with the government, the Kingdoms banded together in hopes to end a war that was a complete drain on each other's resources. Vacuo was almost completely bankrupt, Mistral was decimated in their domestic cities, and Atlas had the upper hand on every level but was on the verge of revolt. Every Kingdom knew they would eat themselves from within. In response to that came the treaty and the Vytal Festival. You think of friendship as the good thing when in reality, that is all you have to offer for being such a screw up."

Jaune soaked in everything Cinder just told him.

"I see." Jaune lowered his shoulders but didn't look away from her.

"We just see that differently. I like to think of a friend as someone that willing to help me as a person. As humans and Faunus, we all have ulterior motives. It's something we're hardwired to do. I'm so odd to people, is because I don't have a true ulterior motive. Very few people understand that and that's why I'm seen as odd. Call it kindhearted or call it stupid." Jaune shrugged.

"So in a way. I'm your friend… basically." Jaune acknowledged her points.

"Hmm?"

"By your guideline. I'm being at your beck and call for whatever the hell you have planned. I work for you and I basically built the Payday Gang in response to it. However, you haven't done much for me at all. So by your logic, I'm your friend and but you're not my friend." Jaune stated with pride.

"I take it our deal wasn't the real such thing in my definition?"

"That doesn't count. That was a deal, we knew of what the other had to provide for each other. Back when I robbed that first bank, which was part of a deal. But now, it isn't the same thing at all. I thought it would have been the end of it." Jaune had the mental image of when Cinder showed him the photos that incriminated JNPR.

"You're probably right about me being a screw up. Dust knows how much I tried to change that. I would agree with you had it been the first week of Beacon. But now, I just don't care anymore. Sure I'm weird but I'm here now for more than myself. I'm not some noble self-sacrificing asshole that parades around telling people about it. I'm owning up to it and call me a screw up. At least I could say I got away with robbing some banks and yet, I still feel like I could do much more. Better yet… call me a Goofball."

It was Cinder's turn to let what Jaune said to sink in.

"No idea why you would want that label."

"It grew on me. Like a fungus. It was small at first then it spread all over to my good graces."

"That's a terrible analogy." Cinder rolled her eyes.

"… I will admit that sounded better in my head." Jaune said defeated.

"Well then moron. I think we discussed all we needed to." Cinder looked away for a moment and walked to another side of the room.

"See you around." Jaune said in a calm tone as he turned around to leave the room.

The door closed behind him as Cinder glanced over it. Cinder shook her head as she pulled out one of her favorite issues of the Freelancer comic books. She opened up the comic book to read about one of her favorite moments in the comic.

Jaune took a deep breath as he looked out to the courtyard again. He fixed his shoulders to help carry the bag better on his back. Jaune glance to the sky to see some clouds in the distance.

Vale Courtyard, same time of Jaune and Cinder's conversation.

Daniel walked on the sidewalk of the academy. He came across several people he knew here and there. Most of them asked the routine questions. How was he doing, what is his he doing now, and so forth. It only helped Daniel see the how shallow people could be. He would make a comparison to Applewood but it would have been a wasted effort. So he just continued to walk around. The main reason why Daniel wanted to come along was to provide moral support for Jaune if anything were to come up.

Phantom Dancer was at his back in a position when he would be out on leisure. The students here and there weren't of much note. A member of SVER came by to say high to him. They had next to nothing to talk about as Daniel casually decided to ward them off with an excuse.

_Might as well kill time with the scrollnet_. Daniel concluded. He put his hands into his pockets and from there, he started to walk off toward the academy library. Not many people pay attention to him as he walked through the front doors into a hallway that could lead him to the library. The classrooms were mostly empty with an occasional person or two inside doing something. He came across a 4 way intersection of the hall. Once he turned at the corner, he spotted a familiar face.

With a new abundance of fear, Daniel just quickly turned around and tried to see if he could avoid the person.

_Crap crap crap_. Daniel repeated in his mind as the decided to take the long route and as he'll just walk around the academy entirely so he could the side entrance to the library. Do that and everything will be fine. That'll definitely work.

"Daniel?"

_SHIT!_

He forgot make an outline of his target.

"Hey." Daniel turned around. "You're Blake right?"

"Yeah, I'm Blake Belladonna. I think our teams had lunch a while back."

"I remember that. Yang tried to take one of Jack's french fries." Daniel recalled. The moment he mentioned a certain blonde, Blake grimaced and shook her head. Mostly against bad thoughts.

_Weird._

"Right… from what I understand you're part of Jaune's new team, JAWS."

"That's us."

"Alright, that's cool. That's cool. So how did your first mission go?"

"It went well. Jaune and I took down a Nevermore. We sliced the head, clean off." Daniel chuckled nervously. "Jack and Wolfe did a number on some Ursa minors and a couple of majors."

"Great to hear. Where you heading?" Blake asked.

"To the library, I'm sure you're busy." Daniel walked past Blake.

"I don't have anything in particular I have to do at the moment. I can tag along."

_Damn it!_ Daniel's mind echoed as he looked away.

"I'll just be doing some research on some Grimm stuff. Mental notes and such." Daniel played his final hand.

Blake sighed. "Look, I'm not feeling great and I really need the distraction."

_What's just happening?_

"Why me though?"

"You're a friend of Jaune. So I know you're cool." Blake shook her head. "I'm trying to avoid someone today. Can we just go the library?"

Daniel didn't have much to be left with.

"Sure." Daniel dragged out on what he talked about.

Like that, Blake turned around to walk toward the library down the hall. It was mostly vacant and even then, the students didn't care all that much. Blake entered the library first then Daniel second.

"Who are you trying to avoid?" Daniel asked as he struggled to keep in pace with Blake.

"A teammate, that's all you need to know." Blake fired back.

"Alright." Daniel looked around to see that the library was pretty much empty. Some of the students probably don't even feel the need to come into this place. Daniel looked around to see that Blake was out walking him by 20 feet at this point.

Daniel shook his head as he jogged to catch up with her.

"So what do you do Daniel?" Blake asked.

"Do what?"

"For your team?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Daniel looked over his shoulder.

_Is this a ploy for RWBY to get the drop on us?_

"Well I just do support mostly. Offer different kinds of trivia that could help us when we went out into the field. Mostly because of all the notes I would take from class. Combat wise, I'm above average."

"Great great great." Blake spoke quickly as she moved her hands about as she wanted to swat a fly.

"Other than that, I just study all the time." Daniel shrugged.

"Facts or fiction?"

"I don't deal in fiction stuff all that much. More so toward facts."

"I see." Blake turned a corner and noticed that her favorite table was vacant. "Come on."

"Do I have a choice?" Daniel shrugged as he walked around the table to sit on the opposite side.

"Not anymore you don't." Blake shot back in a calm tone. "Look, I know I'm being pushy."

"You just now noticed?" Daniel pulled out a chair.

"Whatever." Blake waved off the response. "Do you have something better to do?"

"Well no, I-"

"Great." Blake cut him off. "I can't talk to anyone about this and you're an outside party. Just keep this to yourself or I'll make you regret it."

"How about I have to option to speak my mind, because you apparently dragged me to this very table."

"I hate it when they fight back." Blake drew Gambol Shroud.

Daniel responded with Phantom Breaker on the table.

"I don't think Ms. Goodwitch will be able to repair books." Daniel played his second hand.

Blake stared at him. "What I need is advice."

"Huh?" Daniel pulled Phantom Breaker back.

"I'm mad at my partner. You seemed to be the most understanding out of your group besides Jaune."

"Then why not just talk to Jaune."

"I would but he's been so damn scarce lately I don't know where he is anymore. Normally I'd just have to find Pyrrha and there he was. You're the next best thing."

"Gee thanks." Daniel pressed the button for Phantom Dancer to shift into its compact form. "Well just so you know, I charge 20 lien per hour of my therapy sessions."

"That's criminal." Blake narrowed her amber eyes at him.

"Uh huh." Daniel shrugged. "So what's bugging you?"

"I'm not sure if my team and I are even the good guys anymore. It's been on my mind for a while now."

Daniel didn't say anything in an initial response. Blake made sure to really watch for his expressions and body language.

"For you see, before I came here to Beacon, I joined the academy because I knew that Huntsmen and Huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in Remnant. Always fighting for good. The ones who stood up for justice and fixed the wrong of the world. Like Gionne the Sheildsmasher. He held off an entire Ursa Swarm to protect a village of people sixty years ago. He played the peace broker between small warring tribes. Emile Victoria, she was a former veteran of the Freedom War and she became to be on the greatest huntresses Remnant has ever seen. They caused enough change with their achievements more so than a debate room. They fought for the good of the world and made the choices that benefitted everyone." Blake leaned back.

"Is there more?

"There is, but let me gather my thoughts."

"Are you sure it's just Hunters that cause some form of change?"

"Yes. They're the ones risked and are risking their lives for all of us."

"You seem to hold them in high regard." Daniel slightly narrowed his eyebrows.

"What's your point?"

"Well there are other people who lived that weren't hunters and still made an impact. I take it that's because of the lack of information you gathered from it."

Blake took some offense to that by how she leaned her head back and slightly narrowed her eyes.

"You have this set view that the Huntsmen and the Huntresses. From all the time I seen you with her head in book. I think you know that they're Faunus and human beings. They could only do so much."

"I know that."

"Then why was Vermillion Saige, physically and emotionally abusive to her husband? They were married for seven years as the husband left her for his mistress. The two of them survived an assault of her. But what about Anya MacCullum, who served in the Freedom War and used her rage to kill Grimm. Then she went to kill 9 people in a blood rage on her time on leave. Charlie Bronco was a confirmed rapist to several girls with of some of the villages he was assigned to protect. They were huntsmen and huntresses that go against the image you have."

Blake leaned back silently.

"I recall reading that book. The Turned Eye was the name of the autobiographies." Daniel said as he leaned forward.

"I'm assuming you want to think of Remnant as a world that's Black and White, but I don't think it can ever be that simple."

"What are your thoughts on the matter then?" Blake challenged him.

Daniel looked away from Blake. "For every action is always an equal and opposite reaction."

"Newton's 3rd Law." Blake knew the source of the quote.

"Correct, just so you know. I think the same concept could be applied to the thing you call morality. Good and Bad."

"How so?"

"Well this is just me as there isn't a way for me to prove this yet. But for every action we make as a person, there will always be a positive and negative reaction to it. An example, if I were to just go up to Cardin Winchester, stab him in the heart and ripped my sword through his sternum, what would that cause?"

"Death." Blake was kind of off put on that idea.

"Yeah, but that will mean I have taken the life of someone who thinks less of the Faunus people. Wouldn't that be seen as a good thing? The White Fang seem the think so. But the government would sooner charge me with murder."

"There are clear positive and negative reactions. One good and one bad." Blake restated her claim.

"Well that's not entirely true. There is this envisioned idea that there are the right things to do and the wrong things to do. It just that the older generations just want to us think like they do so the species could still exist a while longer. They created the ideas for the future to live by and tell us how to think."

"Even if I were to walk out and declare that Faunus are abominations. I could be regarded as person saying a good thing while others who disagree with me will want to have me shut up. On which way they prefer is their decision."

Daniel opened his scroll and typed a quick little message.

"If I were to come across a homeless person who asked me for my spare change. I could ignore him which is considered a good or bad thing depending on who you ask. If I were to give said person the money, which would be a good thing because I feel sympathy and maybe it could help the person. If I were to ignore the person, some would see it as good thing that I didn't help because it shouldn't be my responsibility to pay money out of my pocket to help care for someone I don't know anything about, some would consider that a good thing. It's apparently flat out bad of me to get after the poor person and tell them they're not worth the effort. Surprisingly that's what the Kingdoms tell the people."

"Those are statements you've made that are only taken to the extreme." Blake pointed out.

"True, what also matters is the context and how a person views it. No matter what I do, I'm doing something bad in the eyes of someone else in the world." Daniel finished his thought.

"Then what do you considered positive and negative on your personal scale?"

"I just views things on how they could be done on the most efficient level. Not at I'm heartless, I just see things differently. We all can acknowledge that he Grimm are an issue and we kill them without a second thought, so we demonize them. They're our enemy and so it makes it okay that we kill them. While some scientists today learn there could be a Grimm social structure. I will fight the enemy but I don't hate them. I see how the situation connects together of what I want to do in life. I want to be a hunter as the rest of JAWS. However, there are Grimm, people, and emotional ties that weigh our minds. I need to see it and try to find a solution to that problem. But sometimes it's more than just having to fight Grimm. It's about the optimization of the situations I have to face against."

"When my own brother told me that I couldn't be part of his team anymore. That was something rather difficult for me. I wanted to be here for my brother but once that happened. It broke me." Daniel's voice cracked a little. "Then up and comes my dear friend and teammate Tomas Wolfe. He asked me to help him with some stuff. I did and it was a good distraction to my earlier problem. I could have left Beacon. It's a Positive for my brother because he doesn't want me here, Negative for me because I wanted to be here for him. But something more came out of it. It was a huge Negative for my team SHDW but a huge Positive for team JAWS." Daniel raised his posture and talked with a clear voice. "Without that event, I wouldn't have met Jack or Jaune and I'd be back home in Applewood. I will admit, I haven't felt this happy since my early years in Applewood. JAWS is part of me now and if anything threatens that, then me and said issue will have a huge problem." Daniel nodded to his own words and petted Phantom Breaker.

"The bottom line Blake, is that I don't think it will be healthy for you to burden yourself of what others tell you how to think of the supposed Good and the Bad. What I personally believe doesn't make you seem less of a person. Just do you Blake. If you're truly worried about where your team stands on your personal issue of being 'Good.' Then talk it out with your teammate. Sure you may not agree but it is healthy to know how you and other people stand on things." Daniel spoke calmly again. "Just think about that alright?"

Once Daniel stopped talking, footsteps could be heard in the distance. Blake and Daniel looked toward the same general direction. Here comes Wolfe with a sweaty forehead and gasping for breath.

"I'm (pant) here (pant pant) for you buddy… (pant)." Wolfe glanced to his right to see Blake. "Whoa shit!"

"Relax. I just asked you to come here to help me prove a point." Daniel smiled and stood up.

"(Pant) Sure thing." Wolfe lowered his head and regained his composure after a few seconds.

"Let's just say the context of this point will be laughter." Daniel stood up with a hard cover book in his hand. Blake raised an eyebrow.

"Buddy, you think you could read the sub-title for me please?" Daniel held the book out on eye level.

"Sure thing." Wolfe leaned his head down and looked deep at the book. "The Devil of Heaven Lan-" Before Wolfe could finish that Daniel clenched a fist and punched the opposite side of the book and it hit Wolfe in the forehead which was rather hard at that too.

"ARGH." Wolfe stumbled backwards.

Daniel didn't break eye contact with Blake.

"What the hell man!" Wolfe rubbed his forehead.

"Negative reaction."

Blake glanced at Wolfe then back to Daniel who was still completely calm.

After a second or two, Blake couldn't help but snicker at the whole scene.

"Positive response." Daniel concluded. "My personal theory doesn't always have to involve the extreme. It could be simple stuff, like this." Daniel shrugged as he offered a hand to Wolfe.

"I get what you're saying now." Blake couldn't help but laugh a couple of more times.

"Get that out of your system… jackass." Wolfe blinked several times to get his vision back.

"I'm good."

Once that was over, Wolfe felt his scroll vibrate. He opened it as Daniel and Blake talked a little more. Wolfe nodded to the message and tapped Daniel's shoulder.

"Hey man, we got to go Jaune's ready. He's waiting for us at the airship strip."

"Got it." Daniel nodded. Wolfe walked past him and shook his head in annoyance of what made him cut his conversation with Vivian so shortly.

"Look I got to go." Daniel pushed his chair back into place.

"Thanks, Daniel." Blake leaned back and took a deep breath. "I feel better."

"What was the book you pointed out? The Turned Eye, right?"

"That's the one." Daniel nodded. "See you around." He turned around and jogged off to catch up with Wolfe.

"Come on man hurry up." Wolfe spoke rather loudly for the library.

Blake turned away and thought to herself of what she just heard and understood from another person. She opened the very back of the book and she pulled out a pencil and wrote the name of the book so she could look for it. Maybe the Beacon library has a copy.

**Well there we have it people. A lot goes down in this chapter and it was pretty fun writing it. Thank you so so much for reading it. I'll just leave off on that thought there.**

**Today is the release date of the newest episode of RWBY Volume 3. It's finally here! Well, I mentioned in the last chapter, today is also the same day as the one year anniversary of Jaune's Fall from Grace. I mean wow, it's pretty awesome and I know I'm making a fuss out of nothing but I still, I'm glad I reached this far into the story. So much like Overkill, I want to express my gratitude for those of you who have been reading this story. There's still way way more to come. Stay tuned and have a fanRWBYtastic day.**

**Harutora75: **It was chapter that'll help out in the story in the long run. Thank you for reading.

** 37: **Yeah I can see what you mean. Just some food for thought.

**Eugenio4079:** It's understandable. Wow, I was kinda of timid to how readers would take to the chapter. Thank you.

**LS14:** It is so so sweet.

**SargentFalco: **A lot of readers have asked me about the Hoxton Breakout, I'll just say I have something special in mind for that job. Wow, thank you for saying that. I've thought about getting into a new Payday Story but set completely with the Payday universe. It probably won't be for a long time though.

**TheHumanoidTyrant:** Mmm mmm! I love me some awesome sauce.


	31. Chapter 31, Bird Talk

The hallways echoed with the paces of Daniel and Wolfe. While of course, Wolfe started to fall behind since he grew tired. Several students stared at them as they moved through the halls.

"Come on man. You seriously need to get out more." Daniel declared as he didn't start to sweat at all.

"Fuck… you." Wolfe fired back.

"That's it, we are going to have to start to get you on the right track before the Vytal Festival. Jacket too." Daniel shook his head.

"Aw come on, that's not cool man." Wolfe pouted.

"I don't care, I think Jaune will see what I mean and we're going to do some significant training with ourselves."

Wolfe grimaced in silence as Daniel held the door for him. The two of them walked out into the courtyard to see Jaune walking to them with a duffle bag over his shoulder. Jaune looked up and waved at his teammates.

Daniel waved back as Wolfe caught up to him. From there, the two of them strolled to the center of the courtyard as Jaune did the same. The bag he had looked too large compared to what one could expect. It looked as if it was filled to the brim with his possessions. Jaune did a simple nod as the team looked over the courtyard then made their way back to the airship strip.

The team started to talk to each other.

Wolfe and Daniel looked at each other as either one of them wanted to ask about the duffle bag. Daniel shot a glance to Wolfe who only shook his head in response. They continued to play a facial expression game until they reached the airship station. Once the three of them stopped, Jaune spoke up.

"I have a week's worth of clothes, some of my stuff I like, and I just decided that we needed some new gear."

"Sweet." Daniel replied.

The three of them stared directly at the clouds. Wolfe cleared his throat as he looked over the horizon. Daniel put his hands in his pockets and looked around.

"…What do you guys feel like having for dinner?" Daniel asked.

"I'm not sure, what did you have in mind?" Jaune replied.

"Could it be spaghetti? Or is it something else?"

"I was thinking along the lines of meatloaf."

"I can't remember the last time I had that." Jaune smiled. "Let's hit the grocery story on our way back."

Wolfe and Daniel both agreed.

"Should we get something extra on the side? Maybe a frozen pizza or something? As long as we get it for Jack. He loves practically anything." Wolfe suggested.

"Nah, you and Jack need to start hitting up the fruits and vegetables." Jaune retorted.

…

"What? No complaint?" Daniel smiled.

"I would, but even I get tired of bellyaching. Sure whatever. Good luck on getting Jack to eat the stuff." Wolfe shrugged. "By the way, where is Jack?"

"Back at your place. I just messaged him to meet us as the airship station."

…

"Have you guys ever wondered, what kind of damage a flamingo could do?" Daniel prompt a question.

"I dunno."

"I've thought about that and I'm not sure." Wolfe placed his hand at his chin.

"What's a flamingo?" Jaune asked for mental clarification.

"They're those birds that hang out in shallow water. They have long legs and they usually eat algae and shrimp. Because of their diets, their feathers become a natural pink color to them. They're pretty prominent in the Atlas and Vacuo regions. The exception is, that the Vacuo flamingos have a bluish color to them since they go for cyan salmon."

"I remember them now; I always just saw them in picture books." Jaune replied.

"Well, I would assume those birds wouldn't have that many predators since they're always on water." Wolfe added.

"Yeah, that's why I'm asking if they could be a deadly fighter?" Daniel restated his question.

"Well their beaks don't look like they could do much damage but they could also make for some good runners from their legs." Wolfe suggested.

"You mean like an ostrich? They could mess a person up." Jaune chuckled.

"Yeah, so with the flamingos, they could just fly about and attack what gets close to them. Plus, they have the terrain advantage."

"There was a documentary I saw a few months ago and a flamingo snapped a snake out of water and it was torn apart by other flamingos." Daniel clarified.

"You sure? I know geese can do that." Jaune summited to the conversation.

"They can?" Wolfe raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, they developed a sense of protection toward their eggs. They go out and if a snake threatens them, the geese would gang up on them. Since snakes go for their eggs. A family friend of my dad is a farmer and keeps a few geese and they migrate to his farm and they take care of his snake problem. He even feeds the geese." Jaune recalled the times he went there with his sisters. (that's a lot of, "ands" but it works for a run on sentence)

"What about Cranes?" Wolfe suggested.

"Cranes… cranes… cranes. Yeah, I got nothing." Daniel shook his head.

"They're the birds that hang out in Mistral, right?" Jaune frowned a little at his own question.

"Yeah. They can peck your eyes out."

"I thought only crows did that." Jaune tilted his head.

"No they don't." Daniel shot him down.

"Yeah they can, I remember reading it in that one fairy tale." Jaune retorted. (well this was a nice change of pace)

The three of them chuckled to themselves on the conversation. It didn't serve much purpose as it took another 5 minutes for the sight of an airship to break through the clouds. A person on the opposite side of the airship station laughed to herself at the group's continued conversation of birds then being led to a debate upon puffy versus crunchy potato chips. The other passengers boarded quietly as JWS conversation drifted off into another weird place. This time it was about constant and repetitive trance music makes for good fighting tones. Each of them agreed on the thought that… yes, awesome music during a fight is always a plus.

It took about another 20 minutes until the airship station (the whole station went into the air?) returned to Vale with Jacket waiting for them there. He had a duffle bag at his shoulder and had a candy bar in hand. This time it was almond flavored. At least it's a start.

Jacket raised his arms.

"Traffic." Wolfe said as he walked by him.

From there JAWS moved together as they walked through the city. After an hour of moving, the team made it to the parking lot that was right before Gage's warehouse. The reason Jaune lead them there, was because he wanted to get some new dust damn weapons. The kind that make Huntsmen and Huntresses drool.

After the twists and turns the team made it through the main entrance. At the other end of the room, was Gage. Jaune entered the room first and looked to his left. Once that happened, a gun clicked to his right.

JAWS stopped in their tracks. A Sig Sauer p226 with a yellow coloring to it.

"Stop right there!" A child of the age of 6 frowned at them. He had a small beanie hat on his head of a green color. He had a black shirt with a red outline of a rock band in the center. He also had small dark blue carpenter pants and red shoes. Everything about the child confused JAWS.

Daniel blinked his eyes.

"I have no idea on how to deal with this." Wolfe shrugged.

"Don't move!" The kid said in a soft tone.

"Um, Gage?" Jaune called out.

"I know it's you guys." Gage raised his left hand and he moved a modified piece into a gun. "I asked him to do it and he didn't even flinch."

"That's right!" The kid frowned his eyes.

"It's fine Jeremy. They're customers."

The gun was immediately dropped. "Okay." The child looked away from JAWS and moved to his right to walk over to a small couch. As that happened, Gage wheeled up close enough to JAWS.

"My nephew. He means well." Gage nodded.

"He looks that way. I messaged you last night that we're going to check out your stock?"

"That you did." Gage reached for his side pocket of his wheelchair. It was a cigarette packet. "Take a gander." Gage flicked his Pokémon lighter.

Daniel didn't waste any time but walking in front of his friends. A very black and shiny weapon caught Jacket's eye. He walked over and thought of something that could pack a punch just as much as his Cruiser similar to Palm Sun. What he took hold of was the KSG-12 Shotgun. Double barrel and could switch fire rather easily. Gage had a grip modified in and the thing popped open for him to get that new gun smell. Jacket smiled as he put it back down so he browsed some more. (nothing like a duel break barrel, tube fed shotgun)

Wolfe had something a bit more robust in his selection. Something a little simple but still effective. He glanced toward the main weapon rack and saw something that looked decent. An H&amp;K MP5 sub-machine gun. It's armed with 9mm rounds so it comes ideal in the close range situations from its utilities. Around the front end, it had several straps of blue duck-tape on the magazine. It served a rather unique feel and Wolfe weighed the thought in his head. Giving that thing a holographic sight, a flashlight, and modify the barrel would be a good thought. He recalled that there's one Huntress that uses a MP5 heavily modified to shoot .45 ACP rounds. The damn thing takes down Grimm at a great rate.

"Hey Jack, check this one out." Daniel called out as he displayed another shotgun.

A USAS-12 Shotgun. Semi-Automatic and could be adjusted with different types of shells. Developed by the Mistral police force, it was immediately challenged once the AA-12 went into production. Not that USAS-12 was necessarily bad, Mistral has plenty of pride and care into the weapon. The military of Atlas with their AA-12s just don't like to give Mistralan military any form of credit. As much as the two would love to go to war with each other again.

Jaune continued to look over the various weapons to use. Gage minded his own business. Once Jaune spotted something that caught his attention. He reached out for it to see how the weapon felt.

"That's the FAMAS. Or the Fierce Automatic and Security weapon. Put into use about 38 years ago. A Vacuo weapon. The Grimm out there are an ornery kind. They don't have much in the way of terrain but that meant the Grimm out there could develop into the fast kind. Standard weapons worked but the Huntsmen out there needed something to have rapid firepower to work on the Grimm out there." Jeremy walked beside Jaune. He tilted his head. "There was a misprint when it was shipped all over Remnant. It was accidently called the _Clarion_. It came into play and killed a lot of Grimm and was considered one of the best weapons in terms of suppression."

Jaune looked at the side of it.

"The Clarion relies on a blowback mechanism and the shorted form of it gives it more accuracy to work with since the magazine is located in the stock. It's a good one to have." Jeremy nodded.

"You know a lot about weapons."

"Of course. Uncle Gage taught me a lot about weaponry."

"Impressive vocabulary too," Jaune smiled.

"Thank you. Gage told me that learning how to speak makes a good salesman."

"That it does." Gage shouted across the room by waving his arm for Jaune's attention.

"I'll think about that one." Jaune said as kindly as he could.

Once Jeremy nodded at Jaune, he turned around and paced to his little couch at the end of the room. There, a small notebook was opened and Jaune caught a glimpse of what was in the inside of it. It had a small yellow mouse with red circles on its cheeks as it smiled and waved at the viewer. It was the Pokémon called a Pikachu. Jaune then looked over his shoulder thought of (please check this line) the lighter.

Jacket found another weapon. Completely robust and had a bulky look to it. A Mac-10. Similar to his Piece, which was a Mac-11. This Mac-10 clearly had a bigger barrel in it and Jacket checked the clip. Meant for .45 ACP rounds. He smiled and nodded to the weapon. Something like this would definitely tear apart those damn Atlesian Knights. That one is definitely something Jacket wanted to get back too.

Wolfe and Jaune were in the assault rifle section and found two in particular. Both of them grabbed one and felt up the weapons. Both of them shook their heads and then looked at each other. Without speaking, the two of them swapped weapons.

Wolfe got the SIG Commando SG-552 and Jaune had the CM-901. Both very good weapons and were field tested in the southern tribe civil wars. Vale used the CM-901s and Vacuo armed their forces with the Commando SG-552s. Both sides were able to quell the disputes within months before the civil war got out of control. Both weapons could fire 5.56 NATO rounds as both forces kept in communication with each other. Both were basically similar in design and both were well off weapons. Jaune and Wolfe liked them but they felt too simple of a choice.

Daniel looked over to Jacket who put down a SPAS-12 and shook his head to that shotgun. Daniel already had what weapon he wanted. Which was an easy choice, the FN-FAL Designated Marksman Rifle. A weapon that was accurate and packs one hell of a punch. It fires the 7.62x51mm rounds. A similar caliber bullet that an AK-47/74 would use. Daniel felt like he would need something to challenge the Bulldozers and Cloakers. Damn things have been getting on his nerves.

"I like that one." Jeremy stood below Daniel.

"Developed by a tribe in the western region of Atlas. It was a good weapon that was given to the Huntsmen and Huntresses a decade after the Freedom War. Nicknamed the 'Right arm of the Newly Freed Remnant.'" Jeremy checked the color of it. It was still mostly black but the grip and stock had a slightly cyan blue color to it.

"Good thing. Because I thought about getting one. It could help me out on with the Grimm."

"Really? Are you Huntsmen?"

"Indeed. Well Huntsmen in training that is."

"We're getting there." Wolfe added as he also had the weapon he wanted in his hands. An AN-94 Assault rifle. It fires 5.45x39mm rounds. The thing about the AN was that it's developed from the look of an AK-74 but this one leaned more toward the idea of accuracy than firepower. Wolfe felt like something like that could really help him out on the next job. That was his choice on what weapon to get for their next mission. The 2 shot burst feature the weapon has would be pretty helpful to Wolfe. It could help him out with potential double taps in future occasions. Wolfe liked this one.

"I got what I wanted."

"Me too." Daniel added as he started to look over the gear Gage offered. He packed up some para-military grade ECMs, stronger battery life and has a stronger range than the makeshift kind Wolfe could make. Wolfe claimed a small crate of frag grenades as well as a few bags of ammunition. Jacket came back with several new pieces of body armor. Such as wrist guards, shin pads, and thigh armor. As well as a heavier flak jacket. The neck region had shrapnel collars that could help out in the explosive situations. Jacket still needed to browse the weapons but getting the gear was something he didn't want to forget.

Jaune had several other objects at his shoulder as he placed them on the same table of their purchase. Plenty was stuffed in as neither Wolfe nor Daniel wanted to rummage through it. Along with that, Jaune had the FAMAS at his shoulder as well.

"What can I say? Jeremy has a good sale tactic." Jaune admitted then place it on the table.

Jacket was in the corner of the room as he fawned over two other weapons. Three weapons were displayed in front of Jacket. They were LMGs, AKA Light Machine Guns. The kind with hundreds of rounds to constantly spit lead at their enemies. Several of them had caught Jacket's eye. The RPK, the IMI Negev, and the M60E4. Gage smiled at Jacket as he wheeled beside him.

"I've noticed you've been eyeing every one of these fine damsels. The RPK isn't so picky on her targets and each of them serve generally the same purpose. When you have a 100 rounds to spend, something in the general direction you're pointed is something is going to die at some point. Which of these gals catch your fancy?" Gage took a whiff of his cigarette.

Jacket pointed at the IMI Negev.

"You like the girls that have a temper don't ya?" Gage smirked. Jacket raised an eyebrow.

"She's capable of using two forms or rounds. The 5.56 or the 7.62. She'll snap at any target as long as you fit her right. A good choice if I do say so myself. The RPK is a bit, overused. The M60 is a classic but you have better taste than that." Gage looked at Jacket. "Don't you kid?"

Jacket raised his left eyebrow.

"Saw through my play didja?"

Jacket nodded and took hold of the IMI Negev. From there, Jacket also picked the MP7 submachine gun. The thing was something Jacket felt like he'll need along with the IMI. It fires .45 ACP ammunition and could be great to use against the droid forces. The weapon had a pretty slick design that Jacket really liked. Just taking it home was something he looked forward to painting over.

"VRT, I got what veeerrrt, I want." Jacket nodded as he added his weapons to the pile.

"I got mine too." Jaune said as he walked up with the Clarion. As much as FAMAS sounded cool, Clarion had this professional sound to it. He kind of liked it that way.

"So Gage could you check our gear out please?" Wolfe called out.

"Can do." Gage moved to the same table JAWS walked to.

"This is a lot of hardware." Gage commented.

"I thought we were never allowed to ask questions." Jaune deadpanned.

"Good point." Gage checked the serial numbers and ringed out a calculator. Jeremy walked beside Gage and tugged at his arm.

"What is it J?"

"The cost is set at 154,397.59 lien."

"Smart kid." Gage chuckled to himself. "Jeremy's not wrong. Can you reach that amount?"

"That we can." Jaune answered as Jacket placed the duffle bag he hand on the table and Wolfe took out 40,000 lien packs of lien. Each of them were handed off to Jeremy and then to Gage. From there, Jeremy started to count the lien and got JAWS their change.

"Pleasure doing business with you boys. Go tear your enemies a new one." Gage said with a smile as he stared at the lien. "Next week I'm getting a shipment of special dust rounds if you're interested. I'll even cut you dead to get the first 200 rounds free with a purchase of 600."

"Can do Gage." Daniel nodded as he placed the new gear in the duffle bag. Inside was another duffle bag in case the gear was too heavy.

"We'll definitely check out your dust round shipment." Jaune nodded. The thought of having the edge over his opponents again was a convincing thought.

"Before you two complain about the weight of the gear. Daniel and I are heading to the supermarket to get some supplies for dinner tonight. Just so you know, you're having as much healthy food with the meatloaf."

"VRT, Me no complaining." Jacket adjusted his shoulder with the bag of weapons.

"Glad to hear it. See you guys back home." Jaune stated as the four of them split up.

Back at Gage's place.

"They seem nice." Jeremy said as he moved the lien into a new bag and moved it the special hiding place Gage taught him.

"That they are J. Better than my normal customers." Gage moved his chair to move closer to his ashtray. "Good job on selling the FAL and the FAMAS."

"I wasn't sure they would like it."

"Even if they didn't. I would have made sure they would have bought it."

Jeremy raised his shoulders a bit at that statement.

"That mean lady won't be coming back again, right?" Jeremy asked.

Gage remembered the woman that would visit his warehouse. She paid her bills on time but she crossed the line for making a joke against little Jeremy. Gage flicked his lighter again and looked at his nephew. With a new cigarette in his mouth, he gave a comforting smile. There was a newspaper on the far side of the room. It was left on an article of a young woman found dead in a lake on the outskirts of Vale.

"Not a chance J." Gage smiled then scratched the head of his godchild.

"Okie doke then." Jeremy beamed the smile that always warmed Gage's heart. Since there weren't supposed to be any more customers today, Gage locked up his warehouse. Anyone who comes by should take the hint.

"What do you feel like watching?" Jeremy wheeled Gage back into the living room.

"Whatever you want J." Gage opened his jacket to let loose for a little bit.

"Okay, I'm going to go get the, "A Bug's Life." If only there was a man like you there. You could have solved their problems." Jeremy chuckled at his own joke. The DVD player was set to play as the two sat together. Jeremey lifted Gage's legs so he could have them on a foot stool. It gave the both of them a sense of comfort since it was the closest to a normal time in their lives. Gage liked the thought when Jeremy did that the first time. In his equally small fold out chair with his own foot stool, the movie faded to black as it started.

Gage flicked his lighter again.

"Hey! I thought we agreed on no smoking during movie time."

"You got me J." Gage took the cigarette out of his mouth then tossed it across the room. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted." Jeremy smiled then lowered his back to view the TV screen.

…The screen lit up and the movie started…

3 Hours Later, Somewhere in Downtown Mistral

"Shit shit shit!" A young masculine voice chanted as he sprinted away down a narrow hallway. The area around him was completely dark and the footsteps of the people chasing him were getting closer. He hated the idea of being cornered and killed.

"There he is!" A voice called out.

Bullets sparked into the alleyway the young man sprinted into. He ducked his head beneath a dumpster as he peaked out and spotted his attackers.

"Spread out."

The young man took a deep breath as there wasn't much he could do here. The alley splits into three directions that most likely had guards at the ends of them.

There weren't many options and the only way to get out of this, is to fight.

With careful movement, the young man looked around as he noticed that the men chasing him had submachineguns with them.

Without much sound, he slowed his breathing. Once an attacker made it past a dumpster the young man sprang into action. He punched the guy in the throat and fell to the ground. It was loud enough for it to echo in the alley.

"He's in the southern alley. Come on!" More voices shouted.

_Fuck!_ The young man pulled an Uzi out of the hand of the man he just attacked.

"FUCK YOU!" The young man shouted as he fired the Uzi down the alleyway. He saw a man get pegged in the shoulder and took cover at the wall. Another one was immediately killed by a headshot and the blood splattered onto the wall.

In the darkness, several flashes of light flickered in the alley. On every flash, several more of the men attacking the young man were dead.

The Uzi clicked dry and that prompted an attack to break out of cover and blast the young man away. He looked to his right and fell onto his stomach. The final attacker smiled as he walked up to the corpse.

"Try to mess with us huh? Fucking moron." He snickered.

"Not today!" The young man rolled over to his back with a pistol in hand. With seven more flashes of light, the alley laid quiet. A single set of footsteps were all that echoed in the alley. The light flickered again as more dead bodies littered the alley.

More friends of the attackers started to sprint in the same area. When they all arrived, they only found the blood of the bodies and not of the one they were chasing for the past half hour.

"Find him people." A woman ordered. She was of the newer attackers that rallied in the alleyway. "Where the hell is that jackass?"

On the opposite side, the footsteps reached a wall and the young man caught his breath. The Uzi in his hand was completely useless so he tossed it into a dumpster and pocketed his pistol. He walked into the light as his eyes glowed a low orange. There were holes in his shirt that could clearly be seen in the light.

_There is no way I can do this on my own_.

A footstep didn't sound too far away.

_Oh shit!_ The young man widened his eyes. He continued to move in the darkness and got away several minutes later. For the rest of the night, the attackers checked the alleys for miles. They found nothing and the woman that led them expressed her frustration as she punched one of her men in the jaw, breaking it.

"Hurry up and find Grinder!" The same woman barked at her men.

**Man, Volume 3 got off on an awesome start. I just have to admit, the zinger Cinder has in episode 1 was pretty cool. It says a lot about how we view stories. Just something I wanted to mention. Also, I wanted to clarify, with Nora's new semblance finally being shown off was pretty cool. I'm keeping Jacket's electric semblance as it was based off of Payday and not RWBY. I had a person send me a PM demanding I should adjust Jacket to different stuff since what was shown off in Volume 3. I won't do that, as I like the way my story is progressing and what I have planned for it. Thank you so much for continuing to read this story and have an awesome day.**

**MrGreen37: **I had the same thought as well. I thought the chapter came out well enough.

**eugenio4079:** I would, but don't at the moment. There was something I had in mind but that would rush way to many plot points. I think since I uploaded it was a good enough for me. Thank you for reading and have a great day.

**CrimsonHersey: **I think the conversation was pretty important. Wolfe is a really great friend to have.


	32. Chapter 32, The Scroll Call

**The song for this chapter is Enemy of my Enemy from the Legendary Soundtrack.**

**The Link: ** watch?v=utK4LwCIzAk

V.I.A. (Vale Interkingdom Airport)

"All parties please prepare for boarding." A feminine voice called out in a low tone over an intercom.

Several footsteps clapped in unison, four young men walked to a table. Each of them were dressed casually as one of them wore a dark brown leather jacket.

"So do you think there will by any good news when we get there?" Wolfe asked as he walked ahead the group. He had a yellow t-shirt and black pants.

"We'll know when we get there." Jaune replied. He was dressed in blue camouflage pants, black shoes and a grey shirt. "Stop being so negative all the time."

"Screw you man, I just speak what is on our minds." Wolfe scoffed.

"He has a point." Daniel pointed out. He was dressed in a black V-neck t-shirt with a dark blue long sleeve shirt underneath. For his pants, it was darkened brown carpenter pants. In his hand, rest several tickets that belonged to each of them.

Jacket shrugged then looked outside to several airships cruise around the various runways. His lip winced at a bad notion in his mind. It bounced around over and over as he tried to think of other things but nothing worked.

"Is our _luggage_ being secured?" Jaune asked Daniel.

"I passed them off to our contacts, they should have it layered along with the other bags. Believe it or not, but they're actual employees to the airport." Daniel noticed a sign point out the terminal they needed to go to.

"Color me impressed." The amount of fucks Wolfe gave was pretty terrible.

Daniel pointed out which hall to make a turn at for their boarding station. It was a long dreary mind numbing walk through all the '_security_' of the airport. Everyone except Jacket made it through the basic scanners without any difficulty.

"One candy bar, two wads of gum, and several tic-tacks for fresh breath." A security worker rummaged through Jacket's duffle bag. More snacks were discovered for Daniel to send a glum expression to Jacket. Jacket shrugged in response, he can't operate without his snacks.

"May I ask what your intention of flying to Mistral is, sir?" The woman asked.

Jacket blinked at him.

"Sir?"

He blinked again.

The worker narrowed her eyebrows as she opened up the passport of Jack Alburn. Age 18, a student at Beacon. The small written note on the bottom had the reason for his flight written. **A friend needs me to help him move. One way ticket.**

"Must I repeat the question?"

Jacket rotated his head left to right.

"Can you speak?" The worker asked as she noticed a small seal on the bottom. **Huntsman in training from Beacon Academy**.

No response.

"Can you understand me?"

Jacket nodded.

"He's a mute madam." Daniel spoke up.

"Fine. Just so you know, soda bottles aren't allowed to be as extra luggage on a long range airship. You are hereby warned that to take this drink it needs to be disposed of. You can have it but it can't be with when you board. Understood?" The woman looked at the bottle again.

**Regis Cola**. The bolded white label presented itself proudly. "Shortly after your flight starts, the attendants on board will offer you refreshments. No need to try to sneak something on board."

Jacket lowered his head somewhat then looked at his friends. The worker glanced as well then placed all of Jacket's stuff back in the bag.

"You're clear."

Jacket nodded to the security guard.

"Who did you find to take our place during the 'mission,' Jaune?" Daniel inquired.

"A small time PMC firm. They love simple missions as long as it doesn't challenge kingdom law directly. That sort of thing. They go by the name of Desperado." Jaune reached into his pocket to take out a small business card.

"Ah okay. Well, we better hurry up, the airship will be leaving in thirty minutes." Wolfe pointed his thumb at the direction of the hall they had to go to.

Two Days before and 4 hours after purchasing new guns

A metal pot swished around in several motions as the water inside was gently tipped to the side for it to drain. With careful precision, none of the contents of the pot were lost. There were carrots, broccoli and cauliflower that the steam seeped out for a fresh smell.

Daniel couldn't help but smile at how all the food he cooked came out. On the counter, was the meatloaf he worked on for the past several hours as well the other food. The meatloaf has several strands of sharp cheddar cheese layered on the top as well as several spices that coated the entire outer layer. Just by the look of the meatloaf it looked crunchy but any onlooker knew it would crumble in your palm. With that, sat a small pile of salad to have on the side with the main course. With all the dressings that would be needed for it laid out to the very next side.

The drinks tonight for the meal were something new. Rather than just getting the standard soda that is just ready from a can. Jaune suggested that the group have some litter bottled soda and just mix and match drinks just for the heck of it. Pepci, Rola-Cola, Sprunk, Dr. Pep-er and fruit juice were all picked.

The entire dinner table was laid out for the coming feast. Any chef would be proud for what-

"Is the food done yet?" Wolfe called out from the living room.

-could come next. For it was the chef that would pour parts of-

"VRT, Vital signs deteriorating."

-their soul into their creations. For it's not for how the food is done, but how-

"I think that's Jack's way of saying he's hungry." Jaune needlessly pointed out.

-screw it.

"Dinner's ready… you ungrateful bastards." Daniel walked out of the kitchen to see three jackasses disguised as friends huddled together at the couch playing Gears of Halo Theft Auto 9. The screen flashed with an explosion as Wolfe was the one with the controller.

Once Daniel finished, JAW dropped what they were doing. Wolfe put the controller down, Jaune turned off the console, and Jacket was already in the kitchen ready to pass out disposable plates. Daniel rolled his eyes as the team gathered around the dinner table.

Once everyone settled down with their drinks, they started their meal.

"Fuckin' awesome." Wolfe said after he swallowed a savory piece of meatloaf.

Daniel didn't need to be told that if his friends liked the food.

The team ate in silence for seven minutes. Daniel was the one to break the silence.

"Oh yeah, did you get the message on your scrolls?" He asked.

"What message?" Jaune lowered his fork with a piece of cauliflower.

"I didn't."

"VRT, Not it." Jacket claimed his second helping of meatloaf.

"Are any of you registered to the scroll net updates of the academy?" Daniel looked around the table. He was greeted with silence again. "It looks like that the tournament has been delayed by a week. Over half of the registered Huntsmen and Huntresses are all out on a mission. The show runners think this will hamper the outcomes of the tournament."

"Well lucky them. Isn't the mobile arena still on its way to the city?" Jaune asked.

"Yep." Wolfe took a bite of a carrot.

From there, the team fell under silence again. It continued for several minutes as the team continued with more small talk. Like how one actor is awesome and of their favorite movies. It all changed when one of them mentioned, The Tower of Glass. That set Wolfe and Jaune in a loop.

"Dust! I love that movie." Wolfe laughed then had some of his drink.

Jacket and Daniel didn't know what those two were on about.

"You guys haven't seen that movie?" Wolfe looked at Jaune. Then the two nodded to each other. "I have the 10th anniversary edition. You?"

"I got the 25th." Jaune replied. "I'll go get it." He smiled. Jaune finished his plate then walked away from the dinner table in an ecstatic nature.

Jaune entered the garage with his duffle bag on the ground. He packed it up as a backup in case he got bored when he left the dorm. Too bad Ren and Pyrrha didn't like it much. But who cares? Jaune has some new people to show it off to.

He stepped forward then he felt his left pocket vibrate. The contact was Dale.

Jaune felt a little off put that Bain would be calling Jaune for a change.

"Hello? Dale, is that you?" Jaune asked.

"It's me." Bain responded.

"Are you the one who asked for a 30 inch HD-TV?"

"No I didn't order anything like that. I'm afraid you have the wrong number."

.

.

.

"We're clear. No one's tapped in." Bain said with a grain to salt.

"What's up?"

"Apparently a lot actually. Some new stuff has been going through the back channels for the hackers. Nothing severe enough to bother me none." Bain chuckled then continued typing at his computer. "What are you wearing?"

"Get to the point."

"Someone other than Hector is trying to contact you."

"Who?"

"I have no idea. He goes by an alias and he wants to talk to you."

"Any ideas on your end?" Jaune took several steps from the main door then stood at the center of the garage.

"Probably a freelancer or a cop. That kind of stuff happens with unknown types." Bain paused for a moment. "Be careful with this one."

Jaune thought about it.

.

.

.

"Patch him through."

**Start the song now**

"You got it." Bain said as the scrambling sound overcame the scroll.

"Hello? Hello?" A deep voice came over the scroll. Bain always did have the common curtesy to have both parties in calls to have a voice modulator. So Jaune couldn't really tell much about the person on the other side though. But he still needed to keep track of his speech patterns.

"Yes, this is one you're trying to contact." Jaune frowned.

"As in Crescent? Of the Payday Gang?"

"Yeah, that's us." Jaune kept his dialogue simple.

"Ah, well are you by chance available for hire at the moment?"

"We generally work for ourselves." Jaune downplayed the notion.

"Bullshit." The other person said on the phone. "I need some bodies and firepower and you guys seem perfect for this job."

"Just telling us to help you is rather bad for us." Jaune was ready to hang up.

"I can pay out 2 million lien for this job!"

Jaune moved his hand away from the screen. "That kind of money has trouble written all over it."

"Yeah well this one operates on a tight schedule. Interested?"

Jaune pondered the idea. It's been several days since the last job and it was a crap shoot at that. The amount of money they tried to walk away with was ruined by RWBY as several bags were buried under the rubble. Not to mention the expenses to replenish their supplies as well as the new weapons and gear. So in other words, the Payday Gang is really hurting for some cash at the moment.

"What if I am?" Jaune replied.

"I knew you guys were daredevils." The voice on the line laughed.

"I never said we accept it. Just tell me the terms and I'll consider it." Jaune frowned again.

"Fair enough." The voice calmed down. "Look, there is some bad gangs at work at the moment. I need some guns and bodies that aren't afraid to pick a fight with people. A raid here, and a bit of recon there. Bing bang boom, you're rolling in purple bills."

"Don't feed me the bull. That isn't enough for me go with."

"Motherfucker… alright fine. I need some help on raiding a gangster's compound. I heard that you guys took down a shithead by the name of the Commissar. Crazy fucker had his own private army too. You and your crew got the skill to back yourselves up."

"How did you learn about that?"

"Word travels fast in the underground…"

"I'm hanging up."

"WAIT WAIT WAIT. I'm apologize for that comment. I didn't mean it that way."

"Sure." Jaune reaffirmed his grip on his scroll. "The Payday Gang are just freelancers."

"Exactly. Listen, this job expires in less than 4 days. After that, the contract is gone as well as all the lien. It'll take your grit on this and I don't have the power to do this by myself."

.

.

.

.

"Hello?"

Jaune blinked. "I'm still here."

"I'll just tell you the rates. If we succeed, I keep 500k for myself. The other 75% could go to you and your comrades. Does that sound fair?"

_This is too good to be true._

Jaune sighed away from the scroll.

_We need the funds_.

"We'll take it. Just forward me the information. You better not leave anything out, otherwise, we're pulling out of the contract."

"Fantastic!" The voice cheered. "I'll be sure to give you what you need."

"You know us, so who are you?" Jaune made his play.

"Call me Grinder."

The Living Room, Ten minutes later

"Ahhh… that was some good eating." Wolfe rubbed his stomach.

"eeerrrVReet, Indeeee vrt eeeeee vrt eeeeeee vrt ed." Jacket's recorder stalled for a moment as Daniel and Wolfe looked at him. Jacket smacked the recorder so it would stop.

The garage door closed.

"Did you get the movie Jaune?" Daniel called out.

Jaune made it to the corner of the entrance. "Yeah. Listen guys." Once they saw Jaune's face, every one of them gave their full attention.

"I accepted a job. You up for it?"

None of them declined.

"Great." Jaune nodded.

"EEERRT, So what's the job vrt A moon?"

"I asked Bain to book us some plane tickets." Jaune smiled. "We're going to make some noise in the Mistral Kingdom."

**Sup readers. Family stuff and the finals for the semester several weeks ago really gave me a kick to the gut in writer's block, but things are getting better. SO, I just want to say a happy New Year to when you would read it. Tell me what you thought of the chapter and I'll see… uh read you next time.**

**Hurutora75:** Yes, guns, guns are everywhere. It's what I love about Payday. Grinder will be explained over the coming chapters.

**MrGreen37:** Who knows ;-)

**Eugenio4079: **Thank you so much for reading.

**Ghost-407:** Thank you so much for your kind words. It really helps me on how readers see the story. It is a great weapon. I like it too.


	33. Chapter 33, Arrival

**Here we are. Sorry about the delay. My life has been going off and on with some good and bad lately. Before we start, I'd like to recommend a story. It's called **The Power of Blood** by Geezuz on this site. I think it's an interesting story and the author could use some support on getting the story off the ground. Blood as a weapon and some investment in the world of Remnant. Let's welcome a new RWBY friend. **

**The song for this chapter is **Cautionary Warning** by John Sykes.**

**Here's the link: ** watch?v=LQfTe_WpEjE

**I hope you enjoy ;-)**

Jaune didn't care for flying much considering his past incidents with flying machinery… He was generally okay for the flight. Jacket took a nap and Wolfe found solace by watching movies off of his scroll. He downloaded them ahead of time. He flicked his scroll open to see that he got no new messages and none from Cinder either. That was a really relaxing notion for him during the flight. Once he finished, a flight attendant gave him a stern stare. Jaune never understood why airlines were so anal about wanting no scroll usage, he shrugged the thought away.

All he did during the flight was look over some of the upcoming plots for potential heists. Not as an obvious way of incriminating himself as part of the Payday Gang, but some ideas for the future. Also the checking out various forms of transportation that won't cause much suspicion.

Nothing major. Daniel reeled his head back and closed his eyes.

.

Four hours in… Daniel asked for another soda to drink.

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Seven hours in… Daniel stared outside the window. His left hand started to quiver. He was lucky to have Jacket to sit next to on the flight. A young woman noticed Daniel staring out the window with widened eyes. She thought nothing of it then returned to reading her magazine.

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Nine hours in… Daniel had his fourth soda. He stood outside of a bathroom and kept his composure from doing an 'I gotta take a piss' dance. Wolfe looked out to the aisle to see Daniel. He chuckled at his expense, normally Daniel would respond by flipping him the bird but there were kids close by. The door finally opened and he rushed inside.

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Twelve hours in… Daniel opened up a spiral notebook he brought for the trip. Maybe at least he could study to get his mind off things. It worked for a while. A set of eyes glanced his way then drifted back down.

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.

It was a long flight of thirteen hours but it was worth it since the job ahead could more than cover their expenses. It was in the evening at the O'Dare Interkingdom Airport, the group left the airship without any delay. JAWS formulated a game plan. Wolfe and Jacket would head out to the baggage claim while Jaune and Daniel would check out a rental car.

"Attention, a found child is waiting at the office by the name of Sarah Sparrow would her parents report to the nearest police check point?" The intercom buzzed. With wondering eyes, Jaune checked his surroundings.

He glanced to his right to see several patrolling police officers with black visible body armor and dark blue long sleeve shirts. One was a woman and she noticed Jaune looking at her. Her expression was hardened and gave him a smile nod.

Jaune causally looked away.

"Talk about a poker face." Daniel nervously chuckled. Jaune looked at back at him plainly.

"What do you mean?"

"Just that the police are different here. What if there are more flesh types than mechanical? I never thought much about that…" Daniel felt his left arm begin to shake.

"Then we'll plan accordingly."

"You know what I'm talking about." Daniel took a deep breath as he noticed a sign directing them to the car depot.

"I know, it scares me too you know."

"How many _batteries_ did we pack for them?" Daniel started to feel some anxiety take over him.

Jaune knew the code word. "Well we brought about a five bags worth for the trip. We have the first one with the basic supplies. Got some lead packs too, about six packs worth in another and for the batteries, I packed two for each of us."

Translation. They brought four bags worth of gear. One was reserved for their weapons while the second was for body armor. The last two bags were the ammunition. Six ammo bag packs in one and the final bag had some special tools and such. The batteries meant electro dust rounds, there were two clips for every member. No drills though since the parts are pretty damn heavy and the, "baggage dealers" could only hide so much.

"Okay." Daniel felt himself calm down a bit.

Jaune raised his left eyebrow to see the worry on his face. He wanted to ask about it but, Jaune felt that would be kick a man while he's down. Jaune walked ahead of Daniel so there wouldn't be much attention called to him. Jaune knew the feeling all too well.

Back when he was at a science fair to give some moral support to his second youngest sister Katarina Arc, she had an exhibit about her work on corn genetics. The day before, Jaune got a terrible haircut of something he thought would be cool at the time but realized soon after how odd it was… he gave himself a Mohawk to surprise his friends. Jaune felt so embarrassed he had to wear the hood of his jacket. A gust of wind came about and dozens of people noticed him, and some kids he knew from school… he threw up on the sidewalk. He got himself cleaned up with some paper towels from a bathroom and kept it a secret from his sisters.

As much as Jaune hated that memory, something must be happening worse for Daniel.

Eventually the both of them reached the check in station with a hologram man ready to help them.

"Um yes, we have a car reserved. It's under the name of Luna."

The hologram nodded then looked down then pretended to scroll through a terminal. For some reason, just talking to a console didn't sit well with people, so holograms were made to make them seem more 'human.' It's not like people needed an attendant when they buy stuff at a vending machine…

"Ah yes. Here you are Mr. Luna. May I see your ID please?" The Hologram asked.

Jaune reached for his wallet then flicked out his ID. It read Myles Luna. Just an alias and a well-crafted fake ID, curiosity of Bain.

"I have recovered your order Mr. Luna. Here are your keys." A small dispenser opened up and out rolled two keys. One metal, the other wireless. "Please keep track of them and have a nice day." The hologram faded from view as the other two walked outside.

"How long do we have this car on rent again?"

"I think Wolfe put us down for 3 days rent and for every 50 miles we get charged another 2 dollars." Daniel pointed out and he appeared to be calm finally.

Jaune's scroll vibrated.

Do you have the car yet? Jack and I got our luggage. We're at the rendezvous. - Wolfe

Just did, see you in a few. - Jaune.

It was just a simple five person seated car with a dark blue exterior. The garage was like most, as in grey and it echoed.

Jaune would be the driver and Daniel sat on the passenger side. From there the car slowly drove out of the parking lot. It took about five minutes of Jaune making several turns for them to be greeted by the evening sky. The scattered moon made everything pretty scenic if Jaune had to admit it to himself as Pilsen came into view.

Pilsen, a city of the Mistralan Kingdom. A city with vibrant love for technology and development. This city wasn't part of Haven by any means, to get there would take another 5 hours by car. Since there isn't a huntsmen academy in Pilsen it would make for an incident similar with RWBY less likely to happen. The next city that is closest is Athens, which is about three hours to the east. If one were to make a quick escape, it would seem that going by airship is probably the only way to go that could work in Pilsen.

"I just got a text from Jack. They're at the bus station and just got off the corner of Chell Ave. I think that'll be on our next left." Daniel pointed out.

Jaune nodded then kept an eye out for the next turn off.

Pilsen is pretty well developed like most Kingdom cities and it has a barrier too, but it's not as developed like the capitols. Pilsen also has the third largest population in the kingdom. The region is surrounded by grasslands which yielded plenty of potential farmland to be used, such as leek and garlic. They serve as the area's main export for Remnant. Just outside the west and north side of the city, it overlooks a large body of water called Lake Eleanor. At the mouth of the city rests a dock yard that exports crates to the rest of the Kingdom, so this was a place of strong importance. So taking over this city could severely cripple other lake cites. Before Pilsen became a settlement, the tribes of the region used to call the area something else, but it's long forgotten by now. So the locals just call the region Chicago.

Jaune blinked then he saw two people sitting at a public bench. He noticed them too late and the car had to go in a circle to meet up with them.

"Tell them we see them. We're coming around then they can hop in."

Pilsen used to be a small lake town but over time, the city kept expanding and the lake even goes through the middle of downtown. Jaune remember seeing all the water photos of the city. Several skyscrapers go as tall as sixty stories. During the Great War, the basic architecture of the city were of stone monoliths. Throughout Pilsen and Mistral itself, one could find a series of stone temples and modern day Kingdom buildings usually replicate the design. These monoliths are usually supported by huge stone pillars as well have certain areas erect statues of Heroines and Heroes of the past. Some that exist even before the Great War, like Atalanta and Orpheus. A heroine and hero Pyrrha told Jaune about in her culture.

"I just got a message from Wolfe." Daniel's face lit up from the light. "He wants us to park. We need to talk to him apparently."

"Alright." Jaune looked to his right to see a parking space open for him to use.

Another thing one must know about Pilsen is this place was decimated during the Great War. Over 144 years prior, the entire city used to have small structures built from wood… So it wasn't hard to for soldiers to light several buildings on fire. The fire spread uncontrollably through the neighborhoods. Over six point six kilometers was engulf in flames. Dozens of civilians were burned in their homes that cold bitter winter. With the influx of immigrants during the war, this lead to a fast rebuild. However, not many were native to the Chicago region, so other forms of structures were raised with them. Like several mosques and the refugees even offered to build some bridges for the city as well. On the southern side, there is a district called Beykoz which was an island given to the refugees. The refugees came from the south, a place called Istanbul.

Pilsen was a city that was made for simple people and it built upon itself over time. It's the pride of the area and somewhat to Mistral itself. People and Faunus still come here for tourism. Pilsen offers a port to export goods to the rest of Mistral through Lake Eleanor. This place could be a lot of fun for JAWS.

Jaune parked the car and turned off the engine. Daniel and Jaune both got out of the car and the trunk popped out. Jacket carried two bags and Wolfe carried two as they walked up to the trunk. Four wasn't the number they left Vale with…

"Where's the fifth bag Wolfe?"

"Here's the thing." Wolfe placed one bag in the trunk. "One of the baggage guys said that there was hiccup on that and one of our bags was left on a different airship."

Jaune blinked. "Please don't tell me it was the bag with our masks."

"Vrt, Nope." Jacket placed a bag down.

"… Whew…" Jaune sighed.

"It was the bag with our weapons…" Wolfe finished.

"You're kidding." Daniel raised his head.

"No, I'm not. All of our fancy new toys we just bought… aren't here."

.

.

.

"Damn it!" Jaune said in a loud whisper. He turned around then placed both of this hands at his forehead. He felt like screaming. Here the Payday Gang was, in a new place to do some work without weapons. He paced around for several minutes as Jacket and Wolfe loaded the other two bags.

"What did the workers have to say for themselves?" Daniel asked.

"They didn't have any excuses. Just a mix up. They found it in Vale and promised to hold onto our weapons until we can retrieve it when we return. As well as offer us a full refund." Wolfe closed the trunk.

"They better." Daniel frowned. Once he finally let all of that information settle. The same trembling of his hands came back. Without any of them noticing, Daniel put his hands in his pockets. Both sides clenched into fists.

"So what do we do now?" Wolfe looked around. "I doubt our contractor would want us if we don't have our teeth for the job. Barking is my specialty but not when comes to this."

"eeerrrRT, that's racist." Jacket smirked.

"Oh grow up." Wolfe gave him the middle finger.

Jacket silently chuckled. Then he nodded to Jaune.

"What?"

"VRT, Distain is." Jacket pressed his recorder to stop. "VRT Distain is. EEEeeerrrT, Distain is."

"What are you on about?" Daniel frowned.

Jacket had his left hand press onto his right temple. He held the recorder in both hands then pressed the buttons again. "WweeRt, disTAIN is. Vrrrt, disTAIN is."

"Tain?" Jaune looked up then shook his head. "Oh! You mean _BAIN_?" He took out his scroll and dialed the number then paced away to help with his hearing as the rest of the group talked amongst themselves.

BRRRRRRR

BRRRRRRR

BRRRRRRR

"Hello? Dale's-" Jaune tuned Bain out for several seconds.

"And we're clear. What's up?"

"We need to find an Arms Dealer in Pilsen city. One that is preferably cheap." Jaune got the point.

"Aren't you in a hurry? Fine… there's a guy in a neighborhood district called RebornSunEstate. Don't let the name fool you. It's a seedy place and makes for this guy's operation easy to manage. I'll message you on the address. He'll expect you there in less than an hour, so you better get moving."

"Thanks Bain."

Jaune lowered his scroll then looked at his team.

"I got an address, let's mo-ve out." Jaune said as his voice cracked a little at the end.

The crew didn't say anything as that happened. Jaune looked at the ground and sighed. "Let's just hurry."

Daniel was the driver, Wolfe the front passenger, as Jaune and Jacket sat in the back. The car had the street lights reflected off of it as they looked around.

From what Jaune learned and remembered on his study sessions with Blake is that Pilsen is a city that has a bloody past. It was a frontier city during the Freedom War and it helped the entire region stay supplied somewhat by using the lake to feed nearby villages back then. Atlas and Vacuo lead sieges that ended in brutal failure. On the northern outskirts of Pilsen is a cemetery of all the invaders that tried to take this city from Mistral. Both respecting the dead and warning future invaders of what to expect from Pilsen. After the Vytal treaty was signed, the inhabitants of Pilsen wanted this place to be the reformed capitol of Mistral but Mistralan citizens felt there was too much blood in the Chicago region to even consider the idea. The politicians kept dancing around the issue for the real reason back was because of Faunus racism. Pilsen has the largest Faunus population in Mistral.

Jacket just stared outside of the car and saw several people who walked on the street. He'd never seen so many Faunus out in the open street. Most of them had simple expressions and just told him that some don't feel happy here.

Wolfe told Daniel where to make the turns as he watched the map on is scroll. It would be another ten minutes before Jacket noticed a sign to RebornSunEstate.

The buildings appeared to be look moderately new and that is the key phrase to describe this city. Moderately new. The buildings did look as refined in Vale. Some buildings looked decayed while others appeared to have been built just months ago. There was a turnoff again and Jaune noticed several apartment buildings with rugged marks on them. Some of the buildings today still stood from the Freedom War and the residents just converted many of them for other means.

"We're here." Wolfe glanced to the back seat. Jaune looked around. From the info relied by Bain, the place to meet the arms dealer would be at a rundown vacant mini-mall. The parking lot was completely vacant as well and that kind of setting is not something to be calm about.

The two stores were a small brand clothing story, with a pharmacy, with a sandwich place at the end. On the complete opposite side was a veterinarian clinic. It just read as 'Veterinarian clinic.' Jacket thought the lack of a name was amusing.

"Dan, you and Jack watch the car." Jaune turned to Wolfe. "We'll go inside. If we're not out in five minutes. Kick the door down and get us out, please." Jaune ended on a quirky note.

"You ready?" Jaune asked then turned around.

"No." Wolfe shook his head then stood in front of Jaune. "I wish I had my sidearm."

The both of them strapped on their masks. "Not what I wanted to hear but okay." Crescent shrugged as he entered the building.

The entrance of the place was rather bleak since the three couches of the place were wrinkled and most of the corners looked torn out. The hardwood floor looked uneven and had scratches all over the place. Overlooking the entrance was the front desk with a black computer monitor. On the table was a small bobble head with a Skulldozer that blushed toward the observer.

"Nice little thing isn't it?" A deep monotone voice called out from the doorway. Once that happened, Crescent was ready to jump in fright but his body didn't pull any knee jerk reaction. He did widened his eyes though.

Wolfe already looked toward the doorway, there a middle aged Caucasian man stood. His aqua eyes narrowed in an analytical stare. His eyebrows looked untrimmed but tame enough to offer a calm shape to them which was only complimented by his goatee. He had a proudly formed goatee that spread from the corners of his chin that stayed at the edge of his face and linked to his well-trimmed sideburns. He had a strongly shaped nose that added to his calculating stare. His build was rather well off and similar to that of the average adult Huntsmen. His hair color was rather difficult to tell in the dim lighting but Crescent assumed it to be light brunette. Not to mention he wore dark blue jeans, with a matching button up long sleeve shirt that had white square outlines spread all over. Just by his appearance, he just screamed to be a business man and Crescent knew that he could be at a disadvantage already…

"Are the late night owners for the dog toys?" The man spoke.

"We are, his name is Mr. Sterling." Crescent spoke the code phrase.

"Hmm." The man placed his hand on his chin. "Who are you?"

Crescent pointed to himself. "Ursa Major," then he gestured to Wolfe. "Ursa Minor."

"I see. Well call me, 'the Vet." He tilted his head through door that separated the waiting room to the back. Crescent and Wolfe glanced at each other and Wolfe was the one that entered first. Crescent didn't have a weapon but Wolfe did. An old combat knife that he had for a while now, he never used it often and was completely ignored since he crafted Demon Dancer. It had a black steel coat to it and the grip of it was simple enough and it had a crimson outline to it. Jaune stiffened his guard the as he entered through the doorway as well.

The walls looked to be somewhat faded and around the hall were some scenic pictures of Remnant. An open room was passed by and Jaune vaguely saw a dozen or so empty cages and they were small ones. As Crescent noticed that, Wolfe looked to the right room. Inside, was a small room with a glass window, inside, Wolfe noticed that there was a whole litter of kittens. Four of them watched them pass by and pressed their pink paws against the glass curious about the new strange people.

A couple of empty rooms later, the Vet lead them to the basement. The light was on and Wolfe noticed two people were already inside. A man and woman, doing the cliché thing and posed against a wall as the man eyed at Wolfe. A casual blank stare between them and Wolfe didn't back down as he looked away. Not hastily to hint submissiveness but rather casual to show indifference.

"I don't like them." The woman not so subtly whispered to her companion.

Crescent's eye flinched as he mentally prepped himself for combat. Wolfe did the same as he tightened his shoulders. It helped his appearance to be broader and all he had in terms of melee was brute force. He should have brought his new tool with him into the place.

The Vet glanced at his subordinates and the both of them just stared back at him.

"I wanted this to be professional, efficient, adult, and cooperative." The Vet looked away and back to Crescent. "Now, where were we?"

"Weapons." Wolfe stated as he didn't turn completely away having his peripheral vision.

"Right right." The Vet turned around and walked to a corner of the room and he rolled a large box from to be several feet away from Jaune. The Vet kneeled down and opened it. It revealed some neatly pack ordinance. One of which caught Jaune's eye the most and she was a beauty.

"You know who's going to inherit the Earth? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other. That's the secret to survival." The Vet smiled. "Your proxy mentioned that you were looking for something a little on the cheap end. I know these ones are pretty okay in today's world but they'll get the job done." The Vet said as Crescent stepped forward.

"Are they clean?" Crescent took hold of one of the guns and ejected the clip then aimed at the ceiling.

"Of course. My assistant did so several days ago." The Vet stroked his goatee. "Have a thing for that on don't ya?'"

"Yeah." Crescent nodded.

"So with these granddaddy weapons I'm sure you can accomplish what you plan to do. Several rumors spread around that you guys were the ones to have Vale launch a new series of droids."

"It comes with our activities." Crescent played it cool.

"What's going on?" Wolfe leaned into Crescent's ear.

"We can't afford any real guns. So we had to get the _clearance_ stock…"

Wolfe looked back at the crate. "That being Freedom War era weapons."

"Yeah." Crescent showed Wolfe the gun.

The Thompson Sub-Machinegun. Jaune smiled at it. She fires .45 ACP rounds and is a lovely woman that helped during the Freedom War. The Allied Tribes banded together to form a large resistance to the conquering kingdoms at the time. Something that the makes Mistral so unique is that this being the Chicago region, many old school criminals made this their go to weapon for crime. She was called the Typewriter. The Chicago Typewriter. Crescent knew he'll have a blast with this lovely lady.

Wolfe just shook his head at the weapon then looked back at the crate. Inside, it was full of nothing but Freedom era weaponry. He moved a weapon out of the way. You see, that Freedom War affected Remnant as a whole during the time period. Also, this was the time when fire arm based warfare was still being fine-tuned before the development of Atlas on electronics. It would be another 50 years before the Communication Towers would be developed to help craft the modern era. So with that, there was a variety of older weapons and were the ones helped pave the way to better guns that Huntsmen and Huntresses adapted to reduce the Grimm population.

Inside was these weapons. The Thompson Sub-Machinegun, the STEN Sub-Machinegun, a Gewehr 43, a Mosin Nagant, and a Type 99. All Freedom era weapons as well as several pistols. Like the M1911 Hardballer pistol and a Mauser pistol.

Wolfe was generally unimpressed by the weapons and he was glad somewhat that his mask hid that from the Vet.

"You mentioned that these were on clearance?" Crescent asked as he set the Typewriter down.

"Yeah. I thought of along the lines of 135,400 lien."

Wolfe winced in that statement. All the Payday Gang had at the moment was 142,000 lien. That included that there was another 100,000 hidden in his house. There was no way the group could survive on 6,600 lien in case of an extreme emergency.

"We don't have that kind of money." Crescent stated outright.

The Vet raised his left eyebrow and the woman in the back moved away from her wall then reached for her lower back. A pistol would spell doom for the both Crescent and Wolfe.

"What do you mean you don't have the money?" The Vet appeared to keep his mouth closed to prevent some sort of angry expression.

_Make the play quick and clean, Jaune_. Crescent glanced to the Vet.

"We don't have the money because of lack of payment we had with a previous job." Crescent stood taller. "But, are you interested in bartering for an exchange of weight?"

The Vet raised his chin. "What are you getting at?"

"We have an excess amount of ammunition. Granted, I believe what you have offered us some great weapons but I think we can make a deal."

"What you got?" The Vet inquired.

"We have about like what 1,800 5.56 rounds, 360 9mm rounds, and 480 rounds of 7.62 ammunition. What I would like to do is trade that value of ammunition to what we're purchasing for what you want trade. We come to an agreement."

"Prepared for war aren't ya?" The Vet chuckled.

"That's how we roll." Crescent shrugged.

"Fine, let my assistants check the stock before we continue any further." The Vet slightly pursed his lips up.

Crescent and Wolfe both walked side by side the Vet's assistants.

Both sides remained in complete silence as Wolfe and Crescent gestures for Daniel to pull the car to the back. By that point Jacket and Houston had their masks on as well. The lights were blocked out by duck-tape since if a person saw a person in a creepy mask car could frighten any passerby.

The window rolled down as the car turned in. Houston set the brakes and looked at Wolfe. "What's the skinny?"

"Doing a trade." Wolfe leaned away from the window. "Play it cool."

The Vet crossed his arms and rested his back on a brick wall as Crescent popped the trunk. He moved several bags out of the way and pulled out the ammunition bag. He unzipped it open to take several of their own belongings out and he triple checked the bag to not give away anything the team would need later on. Once it was checked the fifth time, Crescent shouldered the bag then walked in front of the Vet's assistants.

The woman raised an eyebrow toward Jacket.

"What's with him?" She asked out loud.

"Cool it." Her partner tapped her shoulder.

Crescent nodded as he opened the bag again as Houston walked beside him. Jacket and Wolfe both watched from the rental car ready for any kind of action. The Vet walked up as Houston took several steps back.

The Vet took hold of 0ne of the magazines and inspected it.

"Clean and neatly packaged." The Vet rummaged through several other forms of ammunition. "I do know this could be sold as part of a packaged deal with my other stock…." The Vet zipped the bag up.

"You got a deal but I feel that this asking for too much."

"What do you have in mind?" Crescent inquired.

"How about with the same amount of ammunition you need and I'll throw in several fragmentation grenades for good measure. Does a case of six work for you?"

"Yes it does." Crescent said in a slightly calmer tone.

_Why do all conversations have so much damn tension_…? Crescent thought to himself as he waved at Houston to follow. Wolfe and Jacket were ordered to watch the car and continue to stare the Vet's assistants down. Jacket rarely made any movements with his mask and just made sure to keep his back straight.

Crescent and Houston walked side by side as they entered the building. They walked back several cages and tables. It was still rather dim and in the final room. The two members noticed the Vet had one more member of his group. What perplexed the two of them is why that person kneeled over a sleeping dog. He was expressionless and he moved his hands over the fur.

The dog was quite large. Just how it looked like it was here for some much needed care. Houston assumed the dog was a she since she had enlarged stomach and _why is that man taking a pair of scissors to that dog_?!

The man opened up the dog's stomach and a plastic bag was removed. The blood was low and didn't look to be anything major. However, it didn't stop the two feeling sick to their stomachs. The dog was clearly breathing.

"We need two right?" The man asked the Vet.

"Yes."

"You got it." He looked back and carefully folded the skin open for another plastic bags of carefully strapped fragmentations grenades. The moist appearance of the blood were apparent on the bag as the man passed it off to the Vet.

"How is Diana?"

"Still in amazing shape."

"Great." The Vet blankly looked at Crescent. "Don't worry about the cats, we have them carry the 9mms. Let me go wash this off for ya."

Houston inched closer to Crescent. "What the hell is this?"

"Can you tell the Vet that we'll be outside?" Crescent asked.

"Sure thing buddy." The man looked back and started to sew the wound closed.

Crescent and Houston both walked calmly out the building.

"I don't like it either but we have to keep this civil." Crescent stated as he spoke in a same low whisper.

"Fine, just so you know, I don't like this guy." Houston frowned under his mask.

"Noted." Crescent opened the door for him to walk out first.

"What was the purpose for us even walking in there?" Houston walked backwards for several seconds.

"Just a sign of trust for him to express that he didn't tamper with the frags. As much I could admit it. I didn't need to see that." Crescent glanced at Jacket. "Did you load up the stuff?"

Jacket nodded back.

"Great. I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving." Wolfe peaked his head over the car.

"Do you ever stop talking about food?" Houston face palmed his mask.

"Never." Wolfe smugly smiled back. From there, the group chuckled to ease out the tension.

"We're having a good time. Fantastic." The Vet walked out with a jumbo sized egg carton. Wolfe walked to the Vet and checked the contents.

"We're good."

"I think that's when we conclude our time together gentlemen… or ladies." The Vet glanced to Crescent. "I honestly can't tell with those masks." The Vet raised his arms and walked to his building.

"Let's rock and roll." Wolfe nodded as he returned to the car. Like that, the group left that mini-mall on a safe note. The red streams of light faded onto the orange lit streets.

The Vet entered his shop.

"We're perfectly fine on ammunition. What point is there to even arm that Clown troop?" The woman enforcer frowned.

"A sign of good will my dear." The Vet looked back out the main window. "Did Jerry know to cut out for the higher potent frags?"

"Like you asked." She responded.

"Fantastic. I don't know about you, I'm ready to go home." The Vet nodded and clicked his tongue.

Downtown Pilsen, 12 minutes later

"Alright so there will be an order of two double stacked goodie burgers, one with season fries, one regular fries, a 12 piece chicken tender, a chicken sandwich with mayo, a salad with everything, a loaded bake potato. Along with two added sides of large French fries. There will be four drinks in total. One Dr. Dancer, Sprunk, cherry flavored Temple and Sunset Sarsaparilla. Is that all?"

"Yes." Jaune replied.

The car drove around the corner to pull up to the delivery window. The back window opened up and Jacket eagerly took several bags of the drive through. From there with ruffling paper and mild annoyance with each other the food was passed around the group. Each member of the group got their meal.

"Thank you." Jaune smiled as the group drove off into on the streets again. "Do you have the directions to the meeting point?"

"Got it." Houston held out a small note before he started to sip his Sunset Sarsaparilla.

**Start the Song now.**

"Awesome." Jaune opened turned on his left signal so he could pull out.

"Alright, we have to the corner of Chap's street and keep going down to Carmine Lane.

"Got it." Jaune looked in the rear view mirror to see Jacket munch away at his French fries.

"I expect you two to work those off the next time we go jogging." Dan frowned.

Wolfe and Jacket paused. They glanced at each other and chuckled at Daniel's expense.

"Take it easy on them. We have no idea what to expect ahead."

"Well not really. My mom came from this city and she told me a lot about it. I lived here when was pretty young, like 3 or 4. Don't ask me a lot of questions, I don't recognize any of the crap we pass by."

Jaune gave a slight shrug in response. "I would assume as much."

"I got my accent from my mother. Not many outside of Mistral know the exact location for it but outsiders just call it a 'Chicago' accent."

"You can help us with the locals if you want to."

"Sure, I think we're coming up to the turnoff. So-"

_VEEERRROOOOOM_! A stream of light breezed past the group. Jaune was forced to slam on the break.

"Asshole!" Wolfe coughed as he ingested more soda than he wanted to.

"It wasn't me. Some jerk just cut us off." Jaune slightly waved his arms to the road.

"I wasn't calling you the asshole… asshole."

"Would you like to drive?" Jaune got slightly frustrated.

"No thanks." Wolfe dropped the attitude and continued to savor his meal.

The drive continued as the group settled in silence.

"Have I ever told you guys about how I used to be a cheese fiend?" Wolfe called out to get their attention.

"No." Daniel answered as he finished his salad.

"News to me."

"VrT, Nada."

"Ah okay. Well when I was about two or three years old. I had a hankering for cheese. The end all and be all snack for me. It boiled to the point my aunt and uncle had to have some money on the side for my cheese habit. Like Colby Jack, Sharp or Mild Cheddar, and Swiss." Wolfe took a sip of his drink.

"Well what happened was that family friends came to my birthday party and what happened was that a family friend gave me two one pound blocks of sharp cheddar cheese." Wolfe looked around the car. "I was so happy that everyone around me couldn't help but get a laugh."

"I bet." Jaune smiled as he paid attention for an upcoming turn off.

"From there we did the normal birthday stuff. To have some cake for some food with leftovers to feed a tribe. That night, my aunt and uncle were called away to help on a personal matter. I was home alone and I raided the fridge. The red ribbons were still on the cheese blocks. I smiled and took out some safety scissors and rip the cheese opened and ate it as I watched Carlo: First Blood. The whole block and half of the other."

"That's not good." Dan spoke up.

"It wasn't." Wolfe looked out the window and chuckled at his own expense. "I tried to go to bed that night but I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Cheese is fattening and blocks your rear exit. In other words, I had diarrhea and I sat on the toilet for a while until my aunt and uncle came back. When I was in the bathroom for an hour. My aunt got curious and she learned of my issue. I didn't get any sleep that night."

Jaune, Daniel and Jacket all broke out in laughter. Jaune swerved slightly on the road but he didn't mind it. No one was close enough to be effected. The closer the group drove, the deeper they got into a seedy part of Pilsen.

Daniel couldn't stop smiling. "Why tell us that dude?"

"No real reason. I still eat cheese but I know when there is too much." Wolfe laughed with the group. It was a calm five minutes before they arrived at their destination.

An old warehouse that looked like the ceiling was ready to collapse. Several of the windows were obviously broken and the faded colors showed that it was abandoned for a long time. There wasn't much graffiti along the walls that confused Jacket as he watched their surroundings.

**The song should end here**

The car lights dimmed as Jaune turned off the engine and the headlights.

"Stay Frosty guys." Jaune said as he noticed that Daniel took the Mauser and Wolfe with the M1911A1.

The car door opened up and Jaune closed it gently as Jacket walked beside him.

"A little new, don't ya think?" A masculine voice called replied.

Jaune and Jacket turned around to see two young men stand outside of the warehouse. One stood with a completely grey t-shirt with brown carpenter jeans. The other had a red v-neck shirt with black letters **tR** on it. The lower case T was on purpose. The light wasn't bright enough for Jaune or Jacket able to see the finer details of their faces.

"You Grinder?" Jaune asked.

"You Crescent?" One of the men asked.

"Both of you are retarded." tR walked up to and moved his arms apart. "He's the jackass that contacted you over the scroll. So just introduce yourselves of make out… whatever you morons do." tR shook his head and walked back inside the building.

"Ohhhh kay." Jaune turned back to the other young man.

"Yeah, I'm Grinder. Welcome to Mistral."

"I'm Crescent." Jaune and Grinder shook hands.

"Well just get your stuff inside. No idea if we're being watched by anyone." Grinder shrugged.

Now that he closed the distance, Jaune got a good look at his face. He clearly was a young man to be in his late teens or early twenties. He was of a lighter skin tone much like Jaune's. He had a set of dark hazel eyes and his eyebrows were curved slightly downward. He was clearly in peak conditions since Jaune didn't see a hint of fat at his face. His hair was cut short and was combed back and didn't look invasive.

"We are the Payday Gang."

"Of course. I'm glad you answered my contract." Grinder nodded.

Something that was surprisingly different about Grinder was that around his eyes as the skin to have a slightly darker hue to it. As well as his hair was of a dark brunette with a grey glow to it. Once there was a noise in the distance, Grinder immediately turned his attention and a set of furry ears spouted out tuned in to the distance. Once he concluded it couldn't be an issue. He lowered his ears.

Grinder was a Faunus.

"When do we begin our first part of the mission?"

Grinder looked back.

"Tonight. We're going to a place called Gamma 3-2, a guy owes me money."

"We're not debt collectors." Jaune lightly frowned.

"I'm just fucking with you. Come inside, I'll explain everything."

"Got it." Jaune waved at Wolfe and Houston. From there the team entered the warehouse. "We're ready for anything."

Grinder nodded back. "Glad to hear it."

**Well I Volume 3 happened. I don't want to drag out my opinion in a huge paragraph, so I'll keep it simple. I didn't like the first half and the second half was the kind of stuff I was waiting for. What did you think Pilsen, the Vet, and Wolfe's story? More will come soon, as always, thank you so much for reading.**

**Harutora75: **Yeah that is bound to happen soon. I hope you still liked the chapter though.

**Stratos263:** I'm glad that you're having a fun time with the story. I hope you caught up.

**Eugenio4079:** Oh, these will be sweet. ;-)

**Supernoob257:** Well I have given those kinds of ideas a lot of thought. I generally do so whenever there is a new trailer released of new Payday 2 Content. I avoid spoiler questions so I can't say anything about it. Thank you for voicing your thoughts though.

**That Guy:** A very good point of the issue. It's something I realized when I reread it a month later.

**MrGreen37:** Much trouble indeed.

**Guest:** I love Fallout and that machine did play some inspiration as I wrote the Beetle.

**The King of Anachronism: **You're amazing.

**Kidcobra14:** Thank you very much for reading. I'm glad you like the music. I worry a lot about it and the music is usually a key part of how I want several fight scenes to go. Have an excellent day.

**Slenderbrine:** It's an awesome game.

**Abrams 1559:** Well the most of those questions are spoilers if I answer them. So I'm afraid I'll just leave the future chapters to explain those. I love to show a gradual change in Jaune for this story. It's something I think that can turn out well. Thanks again for reading.


	34. Chapter 34, Pilsen's Finest

**The music for this chapter will be **Southern Woodlands** from the Tekken 6 soundtrack, **Zombie Inferno** from the Umbrella Corps Soundtrack and **What Kind of Hospital is This? **From the Half Life 2: Episode 1 OST.**

**Here is the links:**

**Southern Woodlands: ** watch?v=WwxUQeVgSos&amp;list=PLYWSsSED4tGUHB2_s7oQ8rT6Rl63pLSUR&amp;index=99

**Zombie Inferno: ** watch?v=h-ySJ0afWO4

**What Kind of Hospital is This: ** watch?v=N2z9tebBnYk

Jaune entered the building and noticed that the warehouse was rather empty. Several of the rooms they passed didn't have anything inside, just wide open space. It showed several fold out chairs and cardboard boxes with several bits of stuff sprawled out. The other person that was with Grinder sat down and started to flick cards into a hat.

"Don't mind him." Grinder said in a thick accent. "I'll show you the map of the city, just follow me."

Jaune knew Grinder was not from Mistral but his accent still put him off. He didn't want to ask Grinder about it since they just arrived…

Daniel shouldered the weapons bag and walked into a corner of the room to clean them. The possibility of a dirty weapon irked the hell out of him…

Jacket and Wolfe held their gear as they approached Grinder's friend. He appeared to be in his mid to late twenties with slightly tanned skin. His tR shirt looked to be a bit worn out with some blue jean shorts. He sat down with his legs perched on top of a small box. The guy had this uninterested scowl to him.

"Sup?" The guy spoke in a bland tone and just shrugged toward them.

"You here to help us out?" Wolfe asked.

"Yep." The guy leaned forward again so he could slightly improve his aim at card flipping.

"Just curious… We're about to work together at least show some fake interest." Wolfe shrugged. He noticed something strange. "The shirt?"

"Huh?" The guy stared up with a bland glance and looked at his shirt. It was a black long sleeve shirt with two letters on it. A lowercase t followed with an uppercase R. "Oh, it stands for team Rocket."

"From the Pokémon cartoon?"

"Sure." The guy leaned back and closed his eyes. He put the last of the cards by his side before the attempt at a nap.

Wolfe didn't ask anything else as he wondered around the storage space. The place was so open that every footstep as the rubber shoes gave a light echo. _This better be worth it._ Wolfe thought to himself as he jogged to catch up to Jaune and Grinder. The three walked into the back of the building into the secluded rooms.

The other room

Jaune rubbed his forehead at the loss of the crew's weapons. He looked up as Grinder entered another room in complete darkness. Jaune stood outside for his eyes to adjust but a dim glow came from the center of the room.

It was a gas lamp.

"I bet you're wondering why I brought you here."

Jaune nodded. When he did, that was around the time Wolfe entered the room as well.

"Don't talk too much do you?" Grinder stated to Jaune.

"I tend to talk plenty and overly so, I just want to hear on what you have to say first. That's how I roll." Jaune shrugged.

Grinder's expression remained blank. "Hmm…" He looked down then pulled out a stack of papers.

"Okay, here's the situation. As much as you can tell, Pilsen isn't the nicest city in _Mistral_ but it still has something to it."

"Can you get to the point please?" Wolfe cut in.

"There is a deal going down in this _part_ of _Mistral_. I know that you guys seem to want to _work_ with actual cash but the scrollnet peddles more money than you _ever_ know. There is a local gang in town that is made a deal with someone in the Pilsen police department and plan to wire some money to fund their enterprises with a blind eye."

"Meaning?" W0lfe tilted his head slightly.

"_Before_ that on all of that money would have to be put in banks then put _through_ fake accounts so legit law _enforcement_ can't _track_ it. So think of it like this… you get to put all of _your_ money on a single _hard_ _drive_ or a USB."

"Sounds simple enough." Jaune had trouble making out a word here and there… mostly because of how Grinder's accent rolled with words that had 'R's in them.

"I was getting to that. Thing is, I don't know _where_ the hell this _hard drive_ will be _delivered_."

"We won't stick around if this proves to be a bust, Grinder." Jaune knew that talking of his support is risky. He put his left hand in his pocket, then fingers twitched in place to play with a loose string. Wolfe's eyes shift to Jaune, not the kind of call he would suggest but he knew Jaune was in a tight spot. This better prove to be worth the time as Wolfe looked back to Grinder.

"Well just like anything, there is _another_ gang in town that doesn't get along with the one I mentioned _earlier_."

"Names?"

"The one with the _hard_ _drive_ are called the Fallen _Stars_. A gang that controls prostitution, hijacking _transport_ semi-trucks and sells the stuff on the _market_ from cheap to absurd. Other basic stuff like _extortion_. _Protection_ money and all that jazz."

"What about drugs?" Jaune leaned forward then squinted at the papers.

"That would be the _Grimore_, since they usually do all the _crap_ some of the _other_ gangs can't _distribute_ as easily. If there is a lien to be made, the _Grimore_ on _are_ on it. The _reason_ they haven't moved on the Fallen _Stars_ is because both gangs are a _truce_ of _sorts_. _Rumor_ is that _children_ of the _leaders_ are _lovers_ or something."

"When should I hear about them committing suicide on the news?" Wolfe joked.

"Doubtful, the kids are out of the city. Whatever happens, the _Grimore_ and the Fallen could _merge or_ make the largest _turf_ war Pilsen has ever seen."

"Wouldn't this theft of the hard drive be the spark to this powder keg?" Jaune inquired.

"I was getting to that." Grinder straightened his back. "The money that _we're_ going to steal is off the Fallen books. A _member_ of the _group_ has been money _laundering_ into the global _markets_ with new _proxy_ businesses in hopes to expand outside the city. The gangs hate how members would steal from themselves and it hasn't _proved_ to _work_ for them in the past. The Fallen _Stars_ leader is _very very_ old fashioned. Greatly _respected_ by _every_ _crime group_ in the city."

Then it hit Wolfe. "The only way the Fallen can change is for the leader to no longer be part of the picture. The Fallen Grimore forms and becomes Pilsen's worse nightmare with the new money that will come in from the wireless funds."

"Exactly."

"What's stopping the old fashion leader from wanting to grow together?" Jaune rubbed his chin.

"He doesn't like a _group_ to be too _large_, because _more_ often than not, some loose cannon fuck ups will do something _stupid_, mostly their kids. Past _experience_ proved when a there was a gang _war_ of the Fallen _Stars_ with the Atlas Yakuza. The Fallen _Stars_ had too much and in the _war_, evidence _appeared_ in police hands and _several_ key members on both sides were sent away _for_ life. If the Fallen _Grimore_ _forms there_ is still a chance the _superpower_ will collapse _under_ itself from eventual _power struggles_. Once the Fallen _Stars_ and _Grimore_ are no _longer_ in _power_."

"Other groups will claim the remaining territories of Pilsen and it will ripple around Mistral." Jaune saw the clear picture now.

"Yep, so this simple _wireless_ money needs to _disappear_. My question is, can you and _your crew deliver_ the goods?"

Jaune took minor offense to that but speculation on Grinder's part was still fair. "We can do it."

"_Great_." Grinder opened a folder.

"Who would be crazy enough to use money to break traditions?" Wolfe leaned forward.

"A new kid through the _Grimore_, going by the name of _Greta_. A _former_ Debt _Collector_, she's the kind of _angry_ bitch that wants to be one to control the Mistralan criminal world. Lien is king to her. Get this, she's the _daughter_ of the _Grimore_ _leader_ and his love for _her_ has him overlook her activities. I don't have much info, but she's invested a lot of money for these two _groups_ to unite. Once they do, she will _sever_ ties of the old ways and completely _reform_."

"What's stopping the cops from raiding her?"

"Paid some of them off. If that doesn't _work_, she also has the _personal_ info on every low level cop in the city. _Her enforcers_ usually go after the loved ones. Last month, a teenage boy had his tongue cut out because his cousin _arrested_ one of _Greta's_ Lieutenants. The police woman quit the _service_ days after she took him to the hospital."

Jaune looked at Wolfe.

"So what kind of heat you packing?"

Jaune was lucky since Grinder looked away for a moment for him to express his insecurity. Once he looked up, Jaune kept his back straight.

"Just some old Freedom War era weapons. It's what we could have smuggled through the airship lines." Jaune said calmly.

"Let me guess, _under_ the alias that the _person transporting_ them is some antique _buyer_?" Grinder lightly smiled.

Jaune shrugged. "We just paid off the airship smugglers."

"Ah okay. _There_ is a _third_ _party_ involved called the Jackal Gang. Vicious _pricks_ that operate as small _timers_. They got _information_ of _where_ the USB _holder_ in a safe at one of _their_ hide outs. They don't know the _true_ value of it and I _arranged_ a meeting for us to exchange some goods."

"What's the catch?" Jaune frowned.

"I'll tell you when we get there, just be _prepped_ in two _hours before_ we go. Oh yeah, my associate is named _Harson_. We have a van in the back."

"Sound good, Grinder." Jaune leaned away from the table and walked to the door. "I'll give my guys a heads up." Wolfe and Jaune walked out of the room.

"What do you think?" Jaune whispered.

"I think this Grimore group is total bullshit, but we have no idea to tell if he's telling the truth." Wolfe looked ahead to see Houston clean out the Type 99 Light Machine Gun. "I say we help out until something goes down."

"I thought the same thing." Jaune rubbed the back of his head. "Did you do your homework?"

"Sure did." Wolfe smiled.

"What kind of opposition we got?"

"Hold on a sec. Let me get the others." Wolfe waved off Jaune then walked to the middle of the warehouse. Daniel and Jacket were both called out to the center of the room. Jaune took the liberty to get several crates and a semi broken fold out chair for the team to form a huddle.

"All right people. Here are the droid models Mistral is packing." Wolfe opened a folder and handed out several sheets of paper. Jacket got the folder first then passed it out to the others.

"These machines were labeled the designation, T-MCU4s meaning Templier - Mechanized Combat Units of the Fourth generation." Wolfe leaned forward and interlocked his fingers.

Daniel straightened a paper which had a photo of a Templier.

"These things have a thicker bulk to their designs. Instead of allotting funds to make thin exoskeletons and to be compact as possible compared to the Atlesian Knights, Mistral does not care if they look fancy." Wolfe took a moment to take a bite of his food as the group looked at the photos.

"Are these things wearing clothes?" Jaune tilted his head.

"Templiers have tactical uniforms and rely on pouches with typical gear." Jaune focused on the image. The Templiers had navy blue long sleeve shirts and pants with black ammo pouches on the exterior.

"eeeeerrrVReeT, What of the joints?"

"Interestingly, the shoulders didn't look completely attached to the torso with a small opening to allow better joint movement at the risk of protection of the frame. Several joints could be seen and the outer coating but were designed with grime resistant layers." It almost look like a droid could have limbs detach it much like a plastic doll.

"What prevented Mistral from completely ripping off Atlas in terms of design?"

"Nothing. Remnant still at peace but there is still an Arms Race. The Templiers were designed to face off against the Grimm in the first place, but that doesn't mean Mistral can't prepare for the worst." Wolfe shrugged.

"What are the main differences between the Templiers and the Knights?" Jaune looked over his shoulder. He could clearly see Grinder in the distance talking to his partner.

"Non-dispensing parts. These things aren't meant for sleek design, they're very practical. The hardware was simpler and proved to be effective with the Grimm Destruction Squads." Each Templier had the navy blue clothing as the helmets slightly varied in color. Usually split between white, black squared heads. Half of the droids in the pictures had lime green shoulder pads.

Non-military units were easier to tell apart. Those models had white torsos, navy blue helmets, over-shirts and shoulder pads with brown carpenter pants.

"Before you think these things are easier. They're not." Wolfe took out one of the papers. "Look at page 9."

Each of them did as they were told.

"The central processing helmets are crude as the neck region has various hydraulics to keep the helmet operational. Two thin antennas would stand up from the back right and left corners of the squared helmets and would slightly shift around as unique sound receptors that were easier to maneuver. So these droids are still a viable threat." Wolfe traced his fingers along the image. "Also, instead of constantly replacing the Templiers, the Mistralan Kingdom would give older models upgrades. If we're lucky, we might see a first generation Templier."

Each had the navy blue color as several of the helmet colors varied. Usually split between white and black squared heads as several had lime green shoulder pads. T-MCU3s were there as well. Much like the newer model but less durable and were distinguishable with white torsos, navy blue helmets and shoulder pads with brown carpenter pants.

"Anything else we should know?" Jaune leaned away from the circle.

"Templiers pack some pretty good heat with the basic police gear. Basically use what a Faunus or a Human would. Assault rifles, SMGs, Sniper rifles and whatever." Wolfe leaned forward to pick up a water bottle. "We just don't stick around when we kick the hornets' nest."

"I thought that was how we roll." Daniel stated which caused Jacket to make an inaudible chuckle while Wolfe shook his head.

"EeeeVrTT, Temp… VRT, Temp." Jacket traced his finger around the word.

"Templier?" Daniel clarified and Jacket nodded. "It's Mistralan for 'Templar.' Referring to a brotherhood of knights back in the Crusade Wars a thousand years ago. The Kingdom wants to remember the past, not that it's something I would prefer."

"Anything else we should know?" Daniel asked.

"I fucked your mother last night, I meant to tell you sooner."

"Yeah whatever shit for brains." Daniel scoffed.

"Could you pass me my soda over there?" Wolfe held his hand out. Jaune rolled his eyes and reached down to the ground to get his large soda.

"Prep your gear guys." Jaune said as he looked over his shoulder to see Grinder's friend with an extremely bored expression while he casually shuffled a deck of cards.

AWS didn't say anything back while each of them opened a bag to get started on their respective tasks. Wolfe took out his body armor and laid it out for him to see what straps and pads that needed to be refitted. Jacket opened his bag for his Rooster mask and inside was a dozen batteries. He took out a small taser and poked his wrist to give himself a jolt of electricity. Daniel continued where he left off on cleaning out the guns and triple checking the barrels so they will not jam in the heat of combat. Jaune opened his fast food bag to reach in for his French fries. He loved the crispy, salty taste as these fries were the perfect golden brown and he couldn't wait to finish the cup that held them. He decided to finish his meal before getting back to his gear.

At the same time, In Downtown Vale.

"Anything that catches your eye?" Two people stood outside a small dust shop. A small place called from Dust until Dawn. An elderly man could be seen at the cash register with a smile and closed eyes. Eventually the contents inside didn't interest the onlookers that much anyway.

A young man and woman both window shopped as they walked along the sidewalk. The woman frowned as she stared at the sidewalk.

"What's wrong Sam?" Her partner inquired.

Sam didn't complain about anything for a while. For Violet, that always meant that something was up.

"Nothing, I would think the Vale police would have more information to go off of when we got here." Same frowned as she raised her head to check their surroundings. A street corner of Vale was in full swing of happy people as dim lights had the street look more like a welcoming outdoor classy mall. Not that it annoyed her, it was just something new to her. Several kids jogged by and played with rubber weapons fashioned after legendary Huntsmen.

"I agree." Violet looked around. All he saw were several cracks that need to be attended to on the old side walk. A lamp just flickered in comparison to the others. He looked away to see a heavily smudged window. Behind it, a young woman nodded at him.

"That's it?" Sam frowned.

"Well acting irrational wastes everyone's time." Violet put his hands in his pockets.

"Not even a lead to a safe house, where they will strike next, or an end goal." Sam raised her hands up in a defeated gesture.

"Well we do know they aren't out to kill civilians." Violet knew he stated the obvious.

"Dust damn it." Sam uttered as middle aged man walked past her. He looked over his shoulder then shook his head. Sam did not return the favor in brain power to be upset about it.

"I spoke with the Alex from the records room." Violet suggested since he was not the kind to just let people vent their problems for a long damn time.

"Yeah?"

"Nothing suggests that this crew to have a history. They're completely new."

"Meaning?"

"Well, since when was the last time that a group made a mockery of the police department?" Violet didn't wait for Sam to make an assumption. "Not since the Hoduran Cartel 13 years ago. I traded info with Alex, and I got some dirt on Vacuo manifests. Shit is about to go down."

Sam and Violet stopped their conversation to quickly jog across the street. A small café with dim lights was in a wide open space of street. The new area they walked to a wide open parking lot that wasn't used often by the locals. It became a popular meeting place for street venders to open carts for tourists. The detectives counted to be part of that group. Violet constantly checked his surroundings as nothing seemed to be an eyesore to him.

"What this means is that the Vale Police Service is planning something big. The Droid units show mediocre results. The Payday Gang offers juicy combat data." Violet rubbed his eyebrows.

Eventually a waiter came to their table and asked for that the two wanted to drink. Violet asked for green herbal tea and Sam decided to go for some soda.

"That's assuring." Sam spoke up when the waiter wasn't in ear shot. "Any big players?

"Yep." Violet noticed a secluded table for the two to sit at. "Companies are starting to offer cheap services. UltraTech, Blacklight Corp, DataDyne Industries, Aesir Pharmaceutical, and CryNet Systems are offering their services."

"What the fuck?" Sam widened her eyes. "What about MurkeyWater?"

"They're not interested." Violet lightly shook his head.

"I mean, these mercs would be all over this?"

"A new contract with Vacuo and Atlas has to say otherwise. The Mars Squad are out to deal with the tribal conflicts."

"GenSec wants to save face with the Councils. Go figure."

"According to Alex, some in the Council still hold faith in the police. Word is that the Council are considering to improve the police budget and forming a special Task Force." The waiter returned with their drinks. "Guess who's at the helm."

"Gideon…"

"Yep, a real powder keg." Violet shook his head. "Any ideas?"

"Nope, sorry."

"It's fine. I did not expect something to radical change in our favor."

"We've been asked to do some minor cases since we're here." Sam leaned back and stared at the starry sky. "All we can do right now is wait for the Clowns to make their next move."

Pilsen, Two Hours later

"We're almost there." Harson adjusted the gear shift. He looked around and he looked in the back. The time currently was about mid evening like about eleven o clock. "I kept an eye out on the way here. I'll be at the vacant park lot about six blocks away."

"Why so far?" Daniel asked as he adjusted his suit.

"Don't get him started." Grinder narrowed his eyebrows.

"Well, there are people out there with guns, and that's the thing. I'm allergenic to lead. So if you please, get the hell out before some Randy on the road reports us." Harson angrily looked out the window.

"Hey man, take it easy." Wolfe said as he strapped on his personal body armor. His gloved hand pulled back the chamber to his Gewehr. It felt heavier than what he liked but he lost in a game of rock, paper, scissors to Houston for the Mosin Nagant. The Gewehr operated with ten round magazines. Wolfe packed his ammo into a pouch at his waist that held it all tightly with his belt.

Jaune opened his suit for his Thompson magazines to be clipped in place. The vet cut him a deal on using a custom vest to hold the magazines that soldiers had back in the Freedom War. It was wide enough for it be layered on top of the body armor. The same was given for the Sten with its magazines. Jaune and Jacket helped each other tighten the straps. Jaune chambered the Thompson several times before wrapping his shoulder armor.

Jacket adjusted his tape recorder in his pocket. After that he tied his flak jacket under the ammo vest. He had lighter armor straps for his thighs and shins as he put on heavier straps to his upper body. Since the last job, he's been working on upper body strength so he could manage his equipment better. The letterman jacket was straightened out as Jacket set a lead pipe on his lower back. The chicken mask was placed over his head and he finally poked his skin with his taser. Blue light flickered in his eyes as he mentally prepped himself.

Houston adjusted his mask. His new Mosin Nagant had a sling attached to it and stripper clips were laced in each pocket he had. A pouch similar for Wolfe's Gewehr had about a dozen more. In order to cut to the bare minimum the airship smugglers could well, smuggle was that ammunition took much of the weight limit they allowed. So it meant that one of JAWS would have to use lighter body armor. Jacket was their heavy hitter so of course he kept his flak jacket. Crescent needed it because he wasn't the best. With Wolfe… back before the packing the equipment, they tossed a coin on who can bring their regular body armor. Houston lost since he went with tails. It made sense with him being the fastest runner in JAWS.

Wolfe finished strapping his body armor on. He then put an ammo belt over his left shoulder then it looped down to his right hip. A vest like Jaune and Jacket's wasn't offered but the belt worked well enough.

"So you guys always prepare for _war_?" Grinder looked around the van.

"VRT, Indeed."

"Droids are a bit of our game now." Crescent smiled then mentally shook his head at himself. Even with the mask on, he still acted on his facial expressions even though no one could see them.

"Not bad." Grinder smiled. "So, which weapon do I use?"

The noise in the van ceased.

"You're our contractor. We didn't plan for you to come with us." Jaune shrugged.

"Come on." Grinder looked around the van. "I got something to do in this as well."

"VRT, Here you go." Jacket used his leg to shove the weapons bag to Grinder.

"Thank you." Grinder smiled as he unzipped the bag. "Oh wow, talk about a classic."

The Type 99 shined in the light as Grinder got a feel for the weapon. While he did that, Wolfe shot a mean glance at Jacket and Houston did the same as well.

_What?_ Was the inferred meaning when he turned to Jaune for support on the matter?

"Hey um Grinder. What can you do?" Jaune spoke up.

"Point me in the _direction_ of who's bugging you and I can make them stop… permanently." Grinder laughed as he took out an ammo bag. It had dozen stripper clips for Gewehr and the Mosin Nagant with the rest of the ammunition. "Do not _worry_. I have plenty of _experience for firearms_." Grinder checked the bipod to the Type 99.

Jaune stared at the floor of the van. "Hey Jacket, you give your left shoulder gear to Grinder while I do the right."

Jacket did as suggested then the two passed it off to Grinder. He smiled about it but he didn't appear to be fully dressed for the task ahead. Grinder had a charcoal black zip up jack on with a dark red undershirt. He also had were dark brown carpenter pants with his shoes being athletic ones. He clothing appeared to be so miss matched, Houston couldn't even look at him.

Wolfe opened another duffle bag while it had the rest of the masks. He took his Demon mask then lightly rolled the bag to Jaune.

"Did you bring the spare head mask?" Jaune looked into the bag then immediately answered his own question. He brushed the Goofball aside to take out a head encompassing ski mask for Grinder. "So you don't lose a strand of hair."

"Hey Jaune. Which mask you using?" Houston asked. "You brought both of them with us right?"

Jaune didn't answer right away. Back in Vale, JAWS learned of his new mask and they were cool with it. He couldn't decide to bring the Crescent or the Goofball mask. In the end, Jacket suggested Jaune take both.

"Hey Grinder. Just so you know, we work by codenames." Wolfe explained everyone else's codename then did Jaune last. "Boss man here is Crescent."

"Just to avoid confusion, I think it work best if Jaune used his old mask." Houston offered his opinion. "It would be a bit weird if others confused Jaune with Grinder."

"Eeeeevvvvrtt, Got to agree."

Jaune grimaced to himself as he offered the Goofball. _Even when I just made the damn thing._

"Team _work_ makes the _dreams_ _work_!" Grinder said as he put the mask over his face.

"Hey, since you're going with us. Mind if you carry the second ammo bag?" Jaune said in a way to mentally get back at Grinder.

"_Sure_, I don't mind." Grinder took out the ammo bag then he looped the custom belt to his pants then it dangled beside his left leg. Wolfe, Jaune and Grinder carried an ammo bag each. Wolfe had the grenade case while Houston had a small first aid kit.

"We're here." Harson shouted over his shoulder.

Each duffle bag brought in the van were all each empty. Just several straps of metal on threaded clothing/kevlar. "We _ready_?"

Each of them nodded.

Jaune smiled as he lower Crescent. "Let's rock and roll."

The place Harson drove them was in a secluded place in the outskirts of Pilsen. The walls of the kingdom looked like mountains on the horizon. Several glowing red lights flickered at the top of the wall. The street was narrow as a secluded two story house stood in the exact center of the small property. On the east and west sides were a shed on each sides. The foundation of the building had several grey bricks lined up as a dirt driveway had an empty space. The property looked to be shaped into a square as a white picket fence encased its surroundings. It looks like some house that was in the process of being built or fixed up. It wasn't a bad place to be, since it was far away from the city but not completely severed from civilization.

"I love the house." Wolfe slung his Gewehr over his shoulder then drew his Mauser. "That was sarcasm by the way…"

"Don't get too attached." Grinder paced forward. "Let's _hurry_, we need what's inside."

"Come on crew." Crescent raised his Thompson.

The van doors were closed as quietly as possible. None of them wanted to be on the street so they walked directly on the property. Harson drove the van off. The dirt path split in two ways. Crescent looked over his shoulder. Jacket was ordered to go with Wolfe on the left side, while the rest of the crew takes the right.

None of the lights of the house were on. A place under some work would make sort of sense if the person working on it was still around.

Crescent stood in front, Grinder second and Houston had his rifle at the ready. Crescent opened the door carefully then creeped in. Once the door opened completely, the light switch turned on and the house looked completely terrible on the inside.

The wallpaper was completely faded with open tears all over. A beam could be seen clearly out in the open in the middle of a walkway. The odor, it assaulted their noses by the time Jacket and Wolfe entered through the main entrance. To make matters even more confusing is that there was a tall painting at a person's height leaning against a wall. What made it even worse was the kitchen with faded cabinets. The paint was so old, the paint appeared that faded urine color as the clearly rotted at the edges. Several dishes were in the sink with no water but a plan of old takeout food was flat on the counter with mold spilling out.

Houston gagged at the sight.

"How the can we even cook? Because this is me telling you guys that I failed chemistry…" Wolfe looked over his shoulder. "Give me a tool box than a microscope any day."

"Vrt, I concur." Jacket looked away from the window.

"It's not that bad. This house is _privately_ owned and isn't on the books for any gang affiliated _dealer_. I left a fake message that I would tell the Fallen _or_ the _Grimore_ about _their_ little _operation_. So, _naturally_, the chemists ditched the place." Grinder chuckled at the end of his sentence.

"If you say so." Wolfe shrugged as he looked out a window. "Quite the setup they have here."

"Huh?" Crescent walked beside Wolfe.

"The layout. The chemists are okay in the intelligence department. See those intake valves and pressure reader?" Wolfe gestured to the meth lad setup.

Crescent leaned in and he pretended that he knew what Wolfe meant.

"Grinder, what kind of people were in charge of this lab?"

"Small _timers_. Why?"

"This rig is a bit too clever for street dealers. Just by looking at it, the lab looks easy to use. Think of this as washing machine, we just need to add the ingredients and it'll do the rest for us."

"Yeah, I noticed that. The guys who _worked here_ had three main substances." Grinder looked at the ground then tapped is forehead when he remembered. "I remember now, we need Caustic Soda, _Muriatic_ Acid and _Hydrogen Chloride. Search_ the house."

"We just went from bank robbers to drug makers…" Houston shook his head with a laugh at the end.

"The deal wouldn't go down _either_ way." Grinder sighed in a defeated manner.

"VeeeerrEEWwWT, Is this it?" Jacket walked beside the crew with a white gallon bottle of muriatic acid and a green jog for hydrogen chloride in each hand. On the wall overlooking the room was a white board with each station of the lab color coded with a number above. It looked like the one labeled, muriatic acid would go up first.

"We should just see how this could work out. I mean, there have to be safety measures, right?" Houston stepped forward and looked around the room. Grinder, Crescent and Wolfe formed a small circle. Behind them, Jacket leaned in and stared at a small monitor then tapped a small pressure gauge and set down the ingredients.

"The exits are _pretty_ _clear_." Grinder smiled under the goofball mask. Jacket tilted his head as he guided right his hand along several bits of tubing of one of the stations of the lab.

"I always wanted to use a window." Wolfe looked back outside. Jacket picked up and looked at each hand of ingredients. He guesstimated the weight of the containers and doubled checked with the white board.

The team continued to bicker over the minor details. Jacket nodded to himself then set the hydrogen down on the floor. He used his free hand to twist off the cap of muriatic acid. The lid of the first station was flicked off and Jacket lightly poured in the chemical.

_ Beep beep!_ A light on the machine flashed an orange light.

The crew immediately turned around to see Jacket wave at them as he finished pouring in the ingredient.

_BEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEPPPPP!_ The light went red.

The entire crew took a step forward. Jacket closed the lid and admired his own handiwork.

_BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEPPPPP! BEEEEEEEEEP!_

.

.

.

The light went green. Jacket turned to the crew and gave a thumbs up with his left hand.

.

.

.

"Well," Crescent clapped his hands together. "I guess we search the premise for more ingredients… yeah?"

Wolfe face palmed into his demon mask.

"Nice one." Houston tapped Jacket's shoulder as he walked past him.

Jacket stood taller with an angled head to the ceiling. Like a superhero posing for a comic book cover. Grinder shook his head as he walked up a staircase to check the second floor.

Houston and Crescent walked outside as the evening stars shimmered at them with the occasional cloud blanketing the sky. From there, Houston walked up to a small shed about ten feet away from the main building. The door was wooden and clearly locked. Houston took a knee and opened his lock pick kit.

"What do you make of this Grinder guy?"

"Different." Crescent mused as adjusted himself to be Houston's lookout.

"Different good, or different bad?"

"A mix." Crescent shrugged. "The lien better be good. That is what's on my mind."

"I don't blame you."

"Do you think this was a terrible idea?" Crescent asked as he looked back toward the street they came through.

"It's your call boss."

Crescent ended the conversation there while Houston worked the lock. Just the sound of the gentle breeze that had several nearby trees ruffle their branches. From there, Crescent instinctively raised his Typewriter. "Movement."

"I heard." Houston finished with the lock and moved his index and middle finger to his mask and pressed a button underneath. "We got contact."

"Where?!" Wolfe kneeled down while he searched the basement. From there, he set down a white container of caustic soda and jogged to the door. Wolfe then raised his Gewehr closer to his chest and peeked outside. Just behind the house was a section of dirt dug out to of the ground to make room for the house alongside this road. What was tricky about the basement was that it's not directly connected to the floors above. One has to walk outside to the basement and walked down concrete stairs for the basement. Wolfe didn't have any clear line of sight nor could he offer significant support.

"I see movement!" Grinder grumbled to himself as he prepped Type 99. "West end."

Crescent and Houston quickly entered the shack. Inside, was a metal drawer with several other ingredients they needed. Crescent walked through as the end of the narrow shack had a small square window for him to look out. He did but it shocked him at what he saw.

A squad of Templiers in standard combat gear. Five in total and each one armed to their nonexistent teeth. One of them had a P90 Submachine guns, two with MP5ks while the other two with Remington 870 shotguns. One of them rotated its head at Crescent's mask. It flicked a light once as the squad turned as well.

Its neck joints twist properly and stared at Crescent's mask.

"Oh no." Crescent stated. From there, he was greeted with more lights in his direction. In the moonlight, Templiers continued with their combat programming. Crescent and Houston took cover, Houston couldn't do anything since he had the chemicals on hand. He let the Mosin lean off his back with the strap. The stripper clips inside his suit jingled together.

"Oh shit! The Templiers showed up!" Houston shouted into the comms.

"VerrrT! Ready?" Jacket prepped his Sten.

Grinder raised Type 99 and looked out a window. The mask reflected in the moonlight and several Templiers positioned themselves outside of the fence line. He had a clear view of area and smirked to himself. A bullet whizzed past the mask and planted itself into the wall.

**Start the track now **

"Fuck it! I _prefer_ a good fight anyway!" Grinder clenched a fist and punched a hole of the window to fit the Type 99.

Wolfe peeked out the basement door to see several Templiers ready to storm the building. He aimed his Gewehr out and fired at them. A Templier head its helmet snap back from the force and the body frame did so as well. It _whooped_ onto the ground with a small gust of wind and dirt kicking up and bounced off the frame of the other Templiers.

Jacket backed Wolf up as he aimed out of a doorway that was closest to the basement. The Sten unleashed onto a nearby Templier squad and one of them had its kneecap hydraulic blown out and it fell forward. Several of the Templiers returned fire which forced Jacket to withdraw.

"Hurry up! I think more could be at the perimeter!" Wolfe shouted as he sprinted out of the basement and to the small concrete staircase to the house with five ingredients in hand. Right before he entered the house, a green bottle slipped out and rolled outside. "Shit!" Wolfe said as a Templier squad came into view on the open street. Bullets whizzed and a dozen red lights that focused on the house.

Wolfe climbed the steps and stood in the completely vacant room with Grinder. The Gewehr aimed outside and Wolfe caught a glimpse what to expect. Templiers sprinted across brief open sections of grass and used picket fence as a form of cover. Not that it provided any protection, the Gewehr punched holes through the wood and the bullets clipped several Templiers on their approach.

Crescent and Houston were still pinned in the shed and the two rotated on taking pot shots. On the time Houston took his turn, the part of the wooden exterior, a circular on at that. Houston used it to his advantage.

"Bulldozer!" Houston screamed into the comms.

"Where!?" Grinder pressed his back against a wall and ejected the magazine.

"Give me a sec, I'm marking it." Houston bolted a spent casing out of his rifle. He looked out and fired at a nearby Templier and missed. However, he did take the time of looking for the dozer again before he pulled back.

"DOZER! MOVE ASIDE!" A heavy duraframe Templier shouted at the lesser models. This was shaped slightly different. The joints were armored up and limbs appeared heavier. Like the damn thing had muscles with padding on certain areas. The collar around the helmet sprouted upward which added resistance to explosives. It stepped forward and there was so much weight, it left an indention on the ground. So these models had a bit more in terms of mobility.

"I see the _fucker_!" Grinder smirked under his mask as he clenched a fist and sprinted to a window on the second floor that was closest to the Bulldozer. Once the Type 99 was good to go, Grinder punched out the window and jumped through it. Jacket stepped forward in an attempt to stop him but he wasn't close enough to grab the insane man. Grinder cared little about his balance as he landed flat on his back and grunted to himself.

"PLEASE STAY ALIVE, SO I CAN KILL YOU MYSELF!" The machine pumped its shotgun shell as it shoved a regular Templier out of its way.

Grinder shook his head and rolled over to his stomach. The Templiers spotted him and their programming decided he was the biggest threat. Houston and Crescent weren't to stand by and watch. Houston kicked the door open as Crescent stepped forward unleashing his Typewriter into a small squad. One of the Templiers riddled in bullets and dropped down. The others turned to Crescent as one rushed at him. Just inches in front of Crescent, the helmet blew apart as Houston chambered a spent casing out of his rifle. Crescent shoved it aside emptied the rest of his clip before the squad could counter attack.

"VRT, Here I brought you a present!" Jacket decided to support Grinder by lightly tossing a grenade at the feet of the Bulldozer from the second story window. A second after he did so, bits of wood at the window chipped away from the bullets. Jacket took his head down and returned fire.

The Bulldozer leveled its shotgun at Grinder. The very moment before it could pull the trigger, the grenade went off sending a shockwave which flooded its sensors. "ARGH!" The Bulldozer raised its left arm up to smack itself in the forehead to recalibrate its sensor. By this point, Grinder leveled his Type 99 then unloaded the magazine. The frame deflected a dozen rounds and endured the rest. However, it didn't go down.

"Come on!" Grinder shouted as Crescent and Houston sprinted out of the shed to the main building.

"DO YOU THINK THAT WOULD STOP ME!?" The Bulldozer regained its vision.

"No, but I _reckon_ this will!" Grinder sprinted at the Dozer with an empty magazine in hand. The Bulldozer slightly bent its knees as Grinder shoved the magazine into the faceplate. From there, the Bulldozer used it's free left arm then gave Grinder a solid gut punch. Enough to slightly raise his feet off the ground.

"BWAHAHAHA!" The Bulldozer bellowed as Grinder lifted his head with magazine ready again and this time, impaled the cracked visor. With one good pull, the visor tore off.

"OH FUCK!" The body of the Bulldozer was in clear view of the house while Crescent, Jacket and Wolfe fired into the exposed helmet

"WWAAARGH!" The Bulldozer toppled over as the helmet caved in.

"One less _bulldozer_ in this _world_." Grinder waved his hand forward and nearly dropped to a knee from exhaustion. He heaved for air for a moment while the crew covered him. He shook his head and jogged back inside the house.

"Damn man, you look like the walking dead." Houston offered a hand, which Grinder accepted.

"Yeah." Grinder leaned forward. "BUUARRGGH!" Grinder quickly lifted his mask and coughed into his left sleeve. Houston leaned in to see blood and quickly reached for his lower back for a hemostat kit to possibly apply first aid.

"_Relax_." Grinder looked up and wiped the rest of the blood away.

"Screw that noise, you need help." Houston got the packet out to see if there was something he needed to do.

"I'm FINE!" Grinder pulled his mask down. "My semblance _protected_ me. I'll explain _later_!"

"You better not be fucking lying!" Houston shook his head as he took his Nagant again and looked outside for more targets.

Jacket stood on the opposite side of the room as he noticed the pressure of one of the stations was stable. So now, it was time to add something else. He took a gander at the white board and poured in the next ingredient. He stood back for a moment, nothing was blowing up nor on fire. So things were working fine. "Vrt, Good to go!"

"Yeah, gold star, can you get your fucking gun on those cops!" Wolfe shouted as he looked outside as the second floor had a small balcony that overlooked the backyard. From there, a wave of Templiers rushed across an open field. "They're making a move at us from the Lumber mill. Concentrate fire." Wolfe leaned out and picked off several Templiers before they reached cover.

Crescent looked outside and noticed several flickering blue and red lights in the distance. "We got a new wave, coming in."

The Gewehr _clicked_ empty as Wolfe took a moment to reload. "How'd the cops get here so fast!? No one should know we're coming!"

Crescent shook his head while he fired his Typewriter. "Grinder?"

"Don't blame me. I lied to the meth heads about an imminent cop _raid_, I didn't know _there'd_ fucking be one." Grinder's Type 99 latched the new magazine in place.

"Well, we're in the shit now." Houston bolted a spent round out. "Let's get cooking."

"Roger that."

"VRT, What a great idea." Jacket noticed the next station as ready for the

"Sure whatever." Wolfe shook his head.

"These cops want a war, we'll give them a war!" Crescent shouted as he gunned down a charging Templier squad.

**Start the second track**

Houston looked outside to see a pair of Shields run across open road. He smirked to himself while the Mosin Nagant's sight was aligned on center mass. The outline made it apparent of were the helmets were located and Houston aimed for that. He pulled the trigger and one of the Shields tripped over itself. The second pressed onward as Houston repeated the same process.

_This packs one hell of a punch._ Houston thought to himself.

Crescent shook his head as he aimed outside and the moment he did, he felt something strike him in on his upper left shoulder. He glanced at it and noticed a bullet was mere inches away from his mask. From there he looked outside and tried to find the shooter. The area was so damn dark, there wasn't a way for him to be sure.

"Who the fuck are these guys!? Ex-Military!?" A police officer shouted in the distance.

Grinder set the bipod up on the Type 99 and took a window for himself then kept a dozen Templiers at bay. He opened fired and noticed more Templiers along a tree line and focused on that area on when they wanted to make move. Grinder chuckled to himself as his left shoulder flicked back from a bullet hitting him. He gritted his teeth and brushed his shoulder and returned to firing at the tree line.

_DING!_ Jacket raised his head and noticed that each station flickered a green light as a small dispenser opened up to reveal crystalized meth. Jacket nodded to himself as he opened his jacket and took out the small bag. The thing even came with a lid, so from there Jacket placed the product carefully into the duffle bag.

"VeeerrrERT, Stage one completed." Jacket rubbed his hands and took the first ingredient. Caustic soda was the first thing, and Jacket poured it in. Jacket grabbed his Sten again and walked to a nearby window to make a few pop shots.

"Not bad everybody. Is it always this exciting!?" Grinder laughed.

"Nope! We usually do this by the skin of our teeth!" Wolfe shouted back while the Gewehr fired and blasted off a Templier's right shoulder which caused it to stumble forward. Keeping the gun leveled at the house but didn't fire any rounds. "Haha! Get wrecked!"

"Nice shot!" Crescent gave a thumbs up.

_Twhip twhip twhip twhip twip twhip!_

"Airship." Houston aimed his rifle outside then noticed a lone Templier rushing out in the open. It found an old car and crouched beside it. The sight of rifle had the circle moved over the grass and encased the car below. Houston took a deep breath then exhaled slowly… the rifle went off and the recoil bucked into his shoulder again as the Templier dropped its helmet down and fell to its side.

Crescent monitored the wide open area. That entire time, he had the Templier in his sights but the Typewriter didn't have magazine loaded in to it yet.

Eventually a white light hovered over the house as several black ropes dropped on to the roof. Houston and Wolfe could heard it as the two looked away from the outside. Metallic feet slammed into the tiles above and as the light didn't go away for about thirty seconds. Houston frantically pulled the chamber out and his gloved fingers slid in the new clip. His thumb rested on the top of the five round and pressed the bullets in. Once the bullets were in, the clip holding them together dropped and pinged off the floor.

"Move in!" A police officer called from above.

"Watch the roof! Watch the roof!" Wolfe shouted a moment before a Templier took hold of the gutter above. Then shoved its feet downward to break through the window. It rolled forward, and stood up in the center of the room. Three other Templiers jumped through the windows as well, Wolfe saw each of them enter and unloaded the rest of his Gewehr. Two were destroyed before they had the chance to react. The last one, was a bit special.

The damn thing was entirely blue, with lime green shoulders. The helmet had a two yellow stripes along the top left and right corners. The paint of it had several scorch marks and the Templier stepped forward. "Let's amp this shit up!"

"Taser!" Wolfe called out while he pulled out his Mauser pistol, but not fast enough. The damn Taser ejected several metallic strings out of its left wrist.

"Waaaahhhhaaaauuuuuuuugggggghhhhhh!" Wolfe remained on his feet but felt his entire body spasm out. Every muscle in his body seized up while he looked at the damn thing ahead of him. The Mauser dropped out of his hand several seconds after being tased.

Houston lifted his Nagant and fired… he missed completely. He did not have time to bolt out the spent round, he dropped it and sprinted forward. The Taser noticed the Heister in time and laughed. "I'll deal with this one!"

The two collided while Houston reached for his lower back for the Mauser pistol. "A little help here!" Houston grunted as the Taser.

Wolfe remained on his feet for several seconds before his legs gave out to his weight and dropped left hip first to the floor. Several veins bulged out of his neck.

"I'm the fucking spark man!" The Taser reeled its helmet back and launched it forward to get Houston to back off. He fell on his back and stared onward as the Taser aimed its right palm. Houston looked to his right to see the Mauser on the floor and lunged at it as his left leg had metallic strings connect to it.

Houston had every nerve in his leg flare in pain. His back was straightened up and he could see the Taser partly as well as the cracked ceiling. He lifted his hand up in a final effort and as his index finger pulled the trigger.

The bullets whiffed around the room. Houston focused his effort completely at the Taser as he was on his seventh bullet.

"I got 50,000 volts in here with your name on them!" The Taser leaned forward and glanced at the stairway. The programming raced through its helmet on to subdue the remaining perps.

"Fuck…. You!" Houston fired the ninth bullet and clipped the left wrist.

"So much for being a threat!" The Taser walked forward as the tenth bullet struck at its left thigh.

"How about me!?" Wolfe shook his head and lunged from the ground at the legs of the Taser. It responded by kicking him the stomach then turned around to see Houston chamber out a spent bullet out of his Nagant.

"Taser dead!" Houston rolled leaned to his right before standard Templiers entered through the balcony. The weapon discharged at the corner which had one of them fall down at helmet first at the doorway. "They're getting bold!"

"Seconded…" Wolfe leaned forward and groaned into the comm.

"Roger that." Crescent replied as he lowered his head. He waited several seconds before going for another pot shot.

"WWeEEEEeeRT, Your package is ready to be delivered. eeErrrVVrRt I look forward to working with you."

"Two down _friends_!" Grinder aimed center mass of a Templier. The chest place endured several shots but eventually shredded open so the wiring sparked in the open. So many bullets were fired, the spinal center. The helmet snapped back then paced forward several steps then brushed aside by a Templier.

Grinder smiled to himself and ducked his head down. A bead of sweat drifted down his left cheek and dripped onto his collar. Bullet casings scattered and rolled on the stained floor. He took several breaths then realized that felt a little light. The barrel smoked as he lightly nodded at the weapon. He looked at the stations to see Jacket fiddling with one of the settings and poured in one of the ingredients.

Grinder crouched down and crawled at the sorry excuse of a kitchen corner then looked out the window to see some Templiers hope the fence. Several of which on their torsos blown apart with circuits spilling to the grass. Grinder glanced up to see Wolfe at the top of the staircase and had his back to the balcony doorway.

"The Templiers are pulling back." Crescent leaned against a wall and felt a wave of relief wash over him. After that moment to himself, Crescent pulled the chamber back on the Typewriter in quick succession to see if it was still in working condition.

Grinder sprinted up the staircase into. Wolfe reached for his Mauser by reflex but calmed himself when he saw the Goofball mask.

"Ammo over here my _friends_!" Grinder placed the bag on a table on the second floor, he took out the ammunition he needed to already. Wolfe jogged over to resupply himself first whereas Houston kept an eye out over the courtyard.

"I didn't see them move away from the Lumber mill. It's probably a staging area." Wolfe sighed at the end of his sentence.

"On it." Crescent replied as he jogged to the same corner kitchen.

"I think I saw a Cloaker." Houston frowned at the Lumber mill as he noticed two bulky Templiers walked with a group.

"Remember, if there's one, there's more." Wolfe finished with the ammo bag. "Housatron, your turn." He jogged away from the table and moved to his spot near the balcony.

"I also spotted a pair of Bulldozers. The next assault is about to get heavy." Houston pulled the bag close to himself. Several stripper clips glided along the table, the heister didn't waste time when he collected them.

**Start the Third Track now**

"VRT, Hello. I am at the midway point." The woman on Jacket's tape recorder said in an overly cheerful voice.

"Thank you _friend_, you have many skills." Grinder pressed his left index and middle finger at the microphone. It didn't improve anything, he just did that by habit. "We're almost done. Four in total should be fine."

"Good to know." Crescent looked up the staircase. Houston dangling the ammo bag and dropped it down to Crescent. The leader caught it and fished out the magazines he needed. "I'm not sure how much more this house can take."

"Doesn't need to. We'll be fine." Grinder flicked the bipod legs to his Type 99 down.

"Says you." Wolfe scoffed as he watched the Templiers scramble in the distance. "I think we should-" Wolfe looked at Grinder as his eyes widened. "GET DOWN!" At that moment, Wolfe witnessed a red laser shine through the window to the upper right shoulder of Grinder.

Grinder looked to behind himself as a crack at the window happened with a _THUD!_ at the end of it.

"Watch out, Sniper!" Houston slid a new stripper clip into his Nagant.

"Fuck! Grinder is down!" Wolfe couched down then checked the body. "I don't know if he's breathing!"

Grinder opened his eyes. "AAARGH! What the shit!?"

"Whoops, never mind… the ass face is alive… apparently." Wolfe leaned away.

"Can't explain now." Grinder looked at his shoulder to see the bullet halfway embedded into his skin. "Fuck man, that could have been _worse_."

"Yeah great. The sniper remember?!" Crescent sprinted the other side of the room below and saw Jacket in cover from the same threat.

"I only saw one red laser." Wolfe kept his head low.

"Just give me a minute." Grinder rested his head on the floor. "You know, I could really go for a nap right about now."

"VRT, Well toooooo VVVRrrt oooooooo rrrEERT bad." Jacket shot a middle finger at the ceiling, Crescent got a light laugh out it.

"I see it. Beige colored, thin framed. Got it Wolfe?" Houston outlined the sniper across the street.

"I see 'em!" Wolfe peeked his mask out… A loud echo occurred. Wolfe's mask flew across the room and the Gewehr rested at the window's rim. The Technician used his hand to lightly hold onto his mask than risk his actual head. He fired and the red laser went directly into the sky, the frame of the Templier rolled onto the grass. "Sniper's history."

"VRT, the third delay has been cleared." Jacket noticed the next patch of meth finished. The sniper was dead so he could move to it and shove the product into another bag. "VRT, One more until… liberation."

"I am so done with this house." Houston shrugged to himself. The head encasing balaclava was damp from a gallon of sweat.

Wolfe crawled along the floor to get his mask, he sighed at the new scorch mark on the left cheek of his Demon mask. He set it back on and tapped his forehead for added measure.

"Break time is over, Templiers are on the move." Crescent positioned himself in the corner kitchen.

Each heister prepped themselves for the incoming assault. Wolfe and Houston picked off the Bulldozers before they even had the chance to be useful to the police. Grinder picked off the standard Templiers, a dozen or so took cover wherever they could. None of them got past the wall of bullets that was Grinder.

Several bullets flew through the windows and helped redecorate the ceiling with holes. Jacket watched the gauges and used the last of the ingredients the team had collected for the stations.

"What the hell do we do now?" Wolfe popped out of cover then fired several rounds. The flashes of orange collided with the blue hue of the evening. He kept his himself out for too long as his right side of his stomach had a bullet wedge itself. He jerked back while Grinder offered some suppression fire. The barrel of the gun was the only thing the Templiers could see outside of the house. Grinder didn't let his torso be completely visible to be shot at. He let the Type 99 do all the talking…

During the assault, a Templier appeared to the right of a squad that wondered through the road, walkway close to the house wasn't completely visible from the second floor. The concrete staircase was there for the elevation to help make the drive in lane bearable. However, that meant there was a potential staging area that the Templiers could exploit. Orange flashes remained sporadic.

"Squad on the left side, do you see them Jacket?" Houston shot at a distant Templier. It struck the right hip of the machine but was still in commission. The heister bolted out the bullet and took aim at the same target. The Templier had its helmet glance at the second floor as it hunched its shoulder a bit so it could appear to be a slightly smaller target.

Wolfe fired at the Templier… and missed.

Houston missed completely as well. "Shit… several Templiers are right below us. If they know we can miss basic models there, what's stopping from sending Cloakers there to finish us off?"

"We get the point." Crescent rolled his eyes. "Look, Jacket and I will go outside and clear out the blind spot. Grinder do you think can put the pressure on them?"

"No problem, give me a sec." Grinder moved away from his window and walked to the opposite side of the room. The bipods slid well at the window. "Reloading, give me 20 seconds." Grinder took a knee to snag a magazine.

"You take care of that, I'll just keep picking off stragglers." Wolfe smiled as lined up his sight onto a field the house had a view on below. A nice Taser that needed to say its goodbyes. He pulled the trigger and the Taser left side of the pelvic center had its left leg completely pop out. Wolfe shoved his back to the wall and snickered at destroyed Taser.

The Type 99 was chambered as Grinder leaned forward to get a view of the area outside. "Go fuck 'em up."

Jacket walked outside first with his Sten was fired in bursts as Crescent sprinted to a nearby cinderblock pile. He had to lay his back completely down on the grass because there wasn't room for Crescent to even crouch down. He crawled backwards when his head bumped into the cinderblock. He looked at Jacket who continued to fire at the Templiers.

About 15 meters away, a Beige Templier had its left forearm but didn't go down. Another Templier ahead of the Beige limped onward. In the distance, Jacket had the group sighted and concentrated his aim. The Templier ahead of the Beige had several bullets hit its torso, the force was enough to have it stop for a moment. The Beige Templier nodded to the comrade as it rammed its left arm into the back of the damaged Templier as the Beige walked forward by placing its assault rifle on the shoulder.

"Makeshift Shield!" Grinder called out.

"Wolfe?" Crescent shouted as he looked up to glance at what was ahead of him.

"Busy!" The Gewehr 43 flashed orange at the direction of the small forest at the perimeter of the fence, some Templiers took cover at the tree line. The dark blue suits made some of them difficult to see.

"Need some help here! Pretty please!?" Crescent had to sporadically look to his left and right worried that at a droid would get the drop on him.

Steam caked the ceiling of the first floor of the house. Jacket noticed as his eyes watered a bit from the chemicals and shook his head. He backed off as he looked at the stations. One of them had an orange flashing light. "VRT, I must move, I will return at the earliest convenience." Jacket waved at Crescent.

"Aw come on!" Crescent his left side of his lip winched as he noticed a duo of Templiers advancing toward the house. The Makeshift Shield noticed the heister and the barrel of its gun aimed at him. Crescent reacted by moving his Typewriter over in its direction and the front Templier was barely still functioning from it being riddled from bullets. Crescent rolled over as the Beige Templier lined up its sights.

The Taser nodded at it target. _TRRRIINK!_ The helmet dislocated itself as several other rounds came from the left side. The slanted helmet and damaged processor looked toward the street. More bullets came at it as Beige Templier dropped to the ground.

"For a group of professionals, you make a lot of mistakes." Harson joked into the comms.

"_Driver's here_." Grinder got the Type 99 leveled at the tree line to suppress the incoming squads. Flashing lights among the bushes immediately were no longer in view. Grinder frowned as the Templiers were most likely waiting for him to use up his current magazine.

Harson sat at a tree secluded bush area. The Templiers weren't focused on the loss of a single unit.

"Look, it looks like the next assault is going to come from the air. Get out soon fellas." Harson crawled out of his hiding place and head back to the van parked about four blocks away. "I'll pick you up at the same place I dropped you. Do not make me wait there guys."

"Gotcha' man." Crescent said as he stood up from his cinderblock wall. He sprinted and jump off the slight elevation the house was for the dugout driveway. He jogged down to a corner turn off to look at the blind spot. There was at least five Templiers, one of them ejected a magazine and reached for a pouch to get another one ready.

"Merde merde merde!" One of the Templiers did not look like the others. The fifth Templier wasn't a Templier, but a live police officer dressed in combat gear. Crescent leaned away from the corner.

"Got a flesh. I need some back up." Crescent double checked his surroundings… "Jacket."

"VRT, My apologies."

"You done with what you're doing?" Crescent kept his eyes to his surroundings and noticed several lights flickered behind the fence.

"VRT, Already there!" Jacket sprinted out of the house and jumped from above the drive way while having he Sten trained at the Templiers.

One of them had bullets flickered off but in the second before it could return fire, Crescent walked of his cover. The Templiers did not react in time as every one of them were destroyed in a matter of seconds. In the house above, Grinder fired at any Templiers that were too stupid to think they could get the jump on the heisters below.

"It's them. The guys from Vale." The police officer stammered as the heisters approached him.

"Hands where I can see them!" Crescent shouted. "NOW!"

No droid in sight to offer support, the officer raised his hands.

"A wise decision." Jacket reached for the belt of the officer and took out handcuffs.

"Please, don't kill me."

"Don't tempt us." Crescent's Typewriter was trained at center mass. "Well then-" He glanced at his name tag. "Officer McGiven, would you please call off the assault?"

"Can't do that. Someone above me has now claimed this operation."

Crescent shook his head. "Jacket, would you kindly?"

Jacket nodded as he his fingertips touch the exposed neck of the officer. The body stood completely still as he dropped to the floor. Jacket and Crescent knew that Grinder wouldn't be able to hold the Templiers off for long.

The two jogged back through the doorway to see Houston shove the next last batch of meth into a bag. "Done, let's get the fuck out outta' here."

Grinder pulled his Type 99 back. "Hey _Harson_, we need you to _hurry_ the fuck up."

"Alright, just started the van and making my way there. You better hurry your asses up. Be there in two minutes."

"Sweet." Grinder jogged downstairs and patted Wolf's shoulder as he watched the tree line.

"Everyone take a bag." Houston had the one he just packed and passed it off to Jacket.

"Vrt, What of our walkway?" Jacket asked as he shoulder a bag.

"Leave that to me." Wolfe sneered as he capped a Templier in the helmet.

"Okay then. I beat the property value just went a lot lower." Crescent joked. He looked around the room as none of other heisters chuckled at him.

"VRT, Booo."

"Jerks." Crescent said as he loaded slung a bag over his shoulder.

"What we got in the distance?"

"Just more of the same. The smart ones are keeping their helmets down. I think they're waiting for reinforcements." Wolfe replied while his Gewehr poked out of the doorway.

"Perfect." Crescent saw the last bag be picked up by Houston. "Can you pick up that ammo bag on your way out?"

"Sure thing boss." Wolfe fired but wasn't sure if he'd hit anything.

"I'm a two blocks away. Get ready to run." Harson said as he barely passed a four way street turn off with the light that just turned red as he passed. "Ran a red light."

"We ready?" Crescent looked around the room.

Each one gave their own response. "Alright, Grinder you cover Houston and Jacket then we'll go after them. The rest of us will clear a path for Wolfe."

Ten seconds passed… "Go."

Houston and Jacket sprinted through the courtyard as Crescent and Grinder appeared at the first floor windows. Several Templiers exposed themselves then picked off by those in the house. In seconds, Jacket reached the street first and noticed that lack of Templiers.

"VRT, Good to go."

Houston reached the same street as well and had his Mosin at the ready.

"Alright. Our turn." Crescent noticed Grinder have the Type 99's strap hold most of the weight at his hip. "I'll go first, you follow."

Crescent ran out as nothing came into view as it was strange to him. He shook his head for a moment to pay attention to the ground and stopped midway for Grinder to pass him. Houston greeted Grinder as he went prone with the bipod on the asphalt. Crescent looked at the house.

"Wolfe, we're out."

"I heard ya. I heard ya." Wolfe chuckled.

"Well? _Aren't_ you coming!?" Grinder frowned as a lone Templier came into view.

"Remember that I said that I failed Chemistry?" Wolfe smiled.

"Yeah?" Houston looked at the house.

"Well I still learned something while I was there." Wolfe lunged out of the window and had his back land on the hood of the broken car in the courtyard. He moaned to himself as he rolled over to the ground but then got up and sprinted toward Crescent. "Well take a look at that!"

Houston, Crescent, and Jacket glanced at the house to see it all intact… For a fire to erupt on the first floor as a station near a window exploded. Orange mist came out of every window of the house and the smell that emanated from it. For Grinder it was like rotten eggs stirred with old gloopy milk.

Grinder gagged under the Goofball mask. "That shit smells like vomit puked out a dead animal."

The rest of the house itself caught fire as the every station exploded with gusts of the horrible smell. By that time, the lights of the van came into view.

"I see you." Harson said as he had the van zoom up to Houston who did his best not to react to the smell.

"Get in." Harson opened the passenger door as well as press a button to open the rear doors as well. Houston, Grinder, Wolfe and Jacket got inside. Crescent was the one forced to sit in the passenger seat.

A couple of Templiers broke from the tree line to get fire at the van. Harson reacted by reversing the van to be a smaller target. The van rotated around and the Payday gang were off.

"Segern är vår, segern är vår, vi har vunnit, segern är vår!" Wolfe cheered happily.

Every heist in the van took off their masks to have fresh air greet their skin. Crescent couldn't in the front as he noticed Harson had a ski mask on with snow gloves at the steering wheel. Crescent looked at the shirt.

"What's with the tR?"

Harson did not take his eyes off the road. "It stands for titanium Rectums. Don't question it."

"Wha-?" Crescent did not know how to respond to that. He leaned his lose his eyes and leaned against the head rest.

Harson pointed his thumb in the back. "There are some water bottles and ammo in the back. You better reenergize and rearm."

"Thanks man." Wolfe took a water bottle and drank the entire thing in one attempt. A drop of it rolled off his lips to the bottom of his chin. Wolfe rubbed his back as it was a bit sore after he landed on that car. "That place was a total shit hole."

"Agreed." Houston took the same ammo bag and restocked it. It had a dozen stripper clips and the rest were magazines for the Type 99.

"Smells like a locker room in here." Harson shook his head.

"VRT, I do not recall… asking." Jacket moved his the sleeve away from his left wrist as he shocked himself with his pocket taser.

"Hey Grinder, is the place we're supposed to head to close?"

"No, its downtown. Harson knows the way." Grinder poured some water on his forehead.

"Oh yeah. What's up with the cops waiting there for us?" Crescent looked at the back.

"No idea, I _swear_. That place was a small meth head lab that didn't _work for_ anyone in Pilsen. Shit… I don't know what else I can say."

Crescent sighed. _This is way too damn fishy._

"What about the license plates? The cops got to be on the lookout for us!?" Wolfe widened his eyes in terror.

"Relax. What I have set in the back are faked with another one underneath. It should fall off a good amount of force." Harson checked the road and noticed a sign of an upcoming turn off to drive through the city. "We have a spare car in the city. We're going to get rid of this one and swap out, you cool with that Mr. Demon?"

Wolfe responded with a middle finger.

"I know what I'm doing. We're taking the back roads." Harson looked to his left, right and left again to see that no cars in his path.

"The Jackals was their name?" Crescent knew the answer but wanted to change the subject in the van.

"Yeah." Grinder had the ammo bag passed off to him.

Jacket reached inside his well, jacket to pull out a small bag of cherry vines. He munched on them as the others watched. He held out his tape recorder and smiled. "VRT, You should have brought your own."

The car went on for a minute until the Harson spotted some in the rear view mirror. Headlights. He kept his eyes on them for ten seconds until the dreaded red and blue lights beamed out. It wasn't just one either, three more moved in formation. The cops were on their tail.

"Motherfucker!" Harson shouted. "I think we didn't get out of there on time!"

The heisters in the back set their masks on and got their guns ready. Harson made a hard right turn to a wide open street. Crescent looked at the rear view mirror to see that droid lean out of the passenger window. With a black shoulder launcher of some kind.

"What's that?!"

Harson glanced at the rear view mirror. "That's a tether, you'll see what that does in a second..."

A trio of spears sprung forward and caught right side of the van. The Templier waved at the other cars as every of them slowed down as the other end of the Tether gun launched at the ground.

The van halted full force as it curved around then had the left side of the van run smack dab into a concrete wall. The glass cracked and engine had seeped out smoke.

Crescent rubbed his forehead and looked to the back. Each of the heisters felt rattled but still awake. Jacket was the first one to kick one of the rear doors open as he walked outside. Crescent opened his car door and fell to his knee and looked up. Four or so police cars parked seventy meters away. Grinder crawled out of the van and moaned from sore muscles.

"Oh man… this is going to give me a bad hangover." Grinder took hold of his Type 99.

Harson lifted his head and groaned. "This van is going nowhere."

Houston walked out of the van. "Well no shit."

"Seconded." Wolfe brushed a bag of meth off his chest as the others were still intact.

"Where are we?"

"Orthosie Plaza." Grinder rubbed his lower back. "We're close to the swap point with _our_ second _car_."

Crescent straightened his back as he noticed the Plaza ahead looked to be more like a concrete park. Several small patches of grass with trees planted all over. Street benches were green and was in the middle of four work office buildings.

"Alright people, get the bags."

"Already on it." Wolfe dropped the fourth bag outside of the van.

"This is the Pilsen PD, lay down your weapons and surrender. This is your only warning!" A microphone echoed off the street.

The Payday Gang each prepped their weapons.

"This is the Pilsen PD…" The voice repeated while Crescent ignored it. The cops and Templiers all took up various positions in close proximity to each other. The heister assumed it was some sort of blockade.

_Twhip twhip twhip twhip twip twhip!_ A heavy duty airship hovered at the other end of the park.

The bay doors crept open as a darkened objects moved out and fell through the air. Two of them landed below. Blue lights flickered on as they stood up from the ground. The machines rotate their rectangular heads and stared directly at the heisters. One had an elongated spear while the other had a bolt in its right arm flick back. It was a small cannon. These machines were Mistralan Beetles and here to play.

A third object jumped out of the airship and landed in front of the Beetles.

These machines stood between the cops and the Payday Gang. The third one rotated its arms and as a street lamp showed a mechanized suit step forward. Concrete and asphalt completely cracked underneath its weight. It stood at fourteen feet high while the glass cockpit reflected the dim orange glow.

"And now we have a Captain!"

**Hey everyone! I hope you loved this chapter. It's been a good year for Payday 2 so far. I love the Hardcore Henry update, the Sydney pack and the Biker Heist. It feels so good that there is still life in my favorite videogame. A bunch of stuff happened to me during the summer and that's what consumed my time.**

**Oh yeah. The term "Merde" is the French way of pronouncing "Shit." I couldn't figure out a way to explain that because an annotation on the side ruins the immersion. Or in my opinion anyway.**

**Oh yeah, this is the translation for Wolfe's song.** **"Segern är vår, segern är vår, vi har vunnit, segern är vår!" = "Victory is ours, victory is ours, we have won, victory is ours!" Wolf is Swedish.**

**I would like to thank Mr. Stark357 and Ghastly Spec for helping me. I appreciate it.**

**Thank you very much for reading! :-D**

**kidcobra14****:** Thank you for the review. I hope you like it.

** 37****:** (Avoidance protocol initiated)

**Slenderbrine****:** I wouldn't doubt it, I just hope the angst will not be dragged out.

**Larry: **Thanks for the catch and for reading.

**Wagner:** (Avoidance protocol initiated.)

**DMD Hanafin****:** Okie doke.

**Kappachino:** Thank you so much. This crossover means so much to me now. I'm glad that you enjoy it.

**The banana man:** You're great. I used to have an update schedule but life has been taking time away from me. So now, I generally work at my own pace.


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